The Collars Come Loose
by lonelypencilcollection
Summary: Modern AU. In society, when someone is born, they are given a collar to signify their place in the rigid caste system that rules over all of the society's inhabitants; from the high and mighty celestial dragons to the lowly untouchables. It's cruel, unjust, and inescapable. Good thing our boys don't play by the rules. Zoro/Sanji, Law/Kidd, Ace/Marco.
1. Chapter 1

If there was one thing Zoro wanted more than anything, it was for that damn clown, Buggy, and his stupid unicycle riding sidekick to go to hell. And that damn witch, Nami, could follow for all he cared, since said witch failed to mention Buggy's, oh so insignificant devil's fruit ability. Thanks to that omission, Zoro was now nursing a major injury. These matters were only made worse by the fact that the city continued to move its streets while Zoro was trying to meet up with Luffy. Luffy had gotten himself lost, in Zoro's opinion. This caused Zoro to end up in the exact opposite of the place he was supposed to be. Known as Marijoise, the highest caste district was where only the most privileged of the privileged could live- those graced with the luck of high birth raised only on the belief that they were better than everyone else and the pain of those in the castes below them.

At this point, Zoro could only continue to lean heavily against the wall of an alley in between two mansions, bleeding profusely with his sheer force of will keeping him from collapsing into the darkness that swarmed in his vision. So far Zoro had been lucky that he'd not encountered a single soul, but he guessed that at somewhere between midnight and one in the morning most of the members of the highest caste were asleep in the gargantuan mansion in their overpriced and cushy beds; perfectly warm, well fed, and safe. But then again, luck was rarely ever on Zoro's side as the soft clack of footsteps approaching could easily prove.

Zoro easily ran through the most likely outcomes of the situation. One, the person approaching was a night guard for Mariejiose who would most likely arrest Zoro for trespassing on the sacred ground of the highest caste and the beat him near to death and throw him in prison for the simple act of being in the wrong place. Two, the person would still be a night guard and Zoro would thoroughly beat him to a bloody pulp before continuing on his painful journey home. Or three, the person approaching was a Celestial Dragon, a member of the highest caste, who only had to say they wanted Zoro dead and it would happen. None of these outcomes seemed particularly pleasing, but being more than halfway into the alley and not having the time nor the strength to turn back and try to avoid the approaching person, Zoro got as close to the right side of the alley as he could hoping that whomever it was would ignore him as he clung to the shadows.

Soon through the shadows the oncoming figure could just barely be made out by the pure golden locks of his hair. Zoro rolled his eyes in a near imperceptible manner and made a small noise of annoyance under his breath, for the man approaching fit the look of his caste in nearly every way, save for the ridiculous space suits most of the highest caste wore to keep the germs of those underneath them from harming them. The man wore a fashionable suit with a light blue dress shirt underneath that made the hue of his visible eye stand out with an uncanny radiance that rivaled the view of pure ocean water on sunny day. His other eye was hidden but his thick, shiny, golden locks that fell straight and framed his face in an easy effeminate way, yet the stubble on his chin gave away his masculinity. These features made him appear young but not immature as he carried himself with a grace and confidence, not haughty, but more comfortable. His right hand reached out to remove the cigarette held between his lips as he let out a sigh of smoke before crushing what little was left of the object into the ground with the toe of his shoe. The only thing seeming off with the man was the strangely curled eyebrow pointing away from the center of his face off into his hair and the bejeweled gold collar around his neck signifying his lofty place in society.

Zoro leaned lazily on the wall and waited on the man to pass as he came nearer and nearer with even and relaxed footsteps. Zoro shifted his position attempting to cover his own rusty iron collar with his shirt. The man got near enough that he could see him perfectly clear and instantly found Zoro, much to said male's annoyance. He sent the man a murderous glare that screamed for the man to mind his own god damned business and keep moving. Sadly the man didn't heed said warning as he paused for a few mere steps away and frowned thoughtfully and the green haired man.

"Oi, moss-head, you're hurt." The golden haired man said breaking the silence as he noticed the trail of blood Zoro had left from his stroll there and the red that stained Zoro's attire. The man stepped in front of Zoro blocking his path, taking in all the damage Zoro had sustained, and seemed to think.

Zoro made a short sarcastic noise in the back of his throat before asking, "And what's that mean to you, eh, that I'm getting your fucking pretty street all filthy with my blood. Sorry, asshole." He made a move to step around the well dressed stranger but the man just followed his movements easily, not allowing him to gain an inch on him.

"Bastard," the man said before he invaded Zoro's personal space putting them face to face, which caused Zoro to pause with displeasure to notice the man was maybe an inch or two taller than him. "Listen you can either stay out here and let one of the real assholes with the guards find you, or you can suck it up and let someone help you." After that the man took a step back, though still obviously unhappy with the situation, his temper seemed to wane slightly.

At this point the ever calm Zoro's own temper was reaching its final limits as he tried unsuccessfully to figure out just what it was that made this man so insufferable. But, like a switch, Zoro figured it out. This man acted like he had a since of justice, but Zoro was unconvinced. He was certain that just underneath this man's mask was just another stuck up prick that believed himself to be better than anyone else. It irritated Zoro to no end that the man refused to reveal his true self, the haughty celestial dragon his was. Damning the consequences, Zoro decided to push the man, to see if he was right, which he was certain he was. His lips curved up in a cunning sneer as he lowered his shirt to reveal the iron collar he wore, of the lowest caste, which society dubbed the untouchables.

"Wouldn't want you to get those privileged hands of yours dirty," Zoro remarked as he finally pushed the man out of his way while the man seemed to suddenly become very interested in the ground.

Zoro only managed to make it a few steps before a hand, gentle but firm, took hold of his wrist, he turned back aggravated when his eyes connected with one the color of the ocean. What he saw in it confused him; intelligence, kindness, and a strength that rivaled his very own. He soon found himself lost in its depth, being drawn in by an unmovable force. The man lifted Zoro's arm until it was over his own shoulders and then wrapped his unoccupied arm around Zoro's waist to grab his harmarki so that he could support the green haired man. Zoro watched the man growing more curious and intrigued with every action the man took, though careful not to let any emotion become visible on his face.

"You're not dirty, you're just injured, and besides I can always wash my hand after I get you to stop bleeding so badly." The man stated simply as he met Zoro's eyes once more with a confident yet small smile. "I'm Sanji, my house is right over there on the left," he said motioning with his head back the way Zoro had come to a small but ornate door, "I can fix up your wounds there."

Zoro looked down, now it was his turn to be interested in the sidewalk, he'd misjudged the man or so it seemed. "Zoro, Roanoa Zoro is my name." The blonde gave a slight nod of understanding as they started to make their way towards his house.

…

Just a few blocks away a man who resembled a rat wearing a marine uniform looked at the blood trail with a malicious smile. It seemed like someone from one of the lower castes had entered the holy ground, and was injured quite severely. The man licked his lips; this is exactly what he'd been waiting for. It was just the thing to kill the stress and fury he'd built up over the years. According to law, he, as a military man could assault, torture, imprison, and even kill any lower caste citizen who dared step one foot into this sacred place of the highest caste. Yes, he was going to enjoy what was to come.


	2. Chapter 2

Much to Zoro's surprise, Sanji's house wasn't nearly as extravagant as he assumed that it would be. Not to say that it wasn't nice, far nicer than anything Zoro had seen in his lifetime that was for sure, and while it was fashionable and somewhat fancy looking it was more classy than gaudy. It had few decorations and most of them were photographs of people Zoro assumed were close with Sanji. As Sanji helped him down to the couch Zoro caught a glimpse of one of these said photographs and inspected it closer. Sanji was there, front and center though he was much younger than his is present day pulling, not completely playfully on an older man's braided mustache. The older man wore a silver collar of the business caste and had blonde hair as well but more sandy and dirty than Sanji's own strands of sunlight. The man had his leg, not the wooden one, but the one made of flesh raised as if he was about to kick the young Sanji. In front of the two was a cake with a singular candle in it, obviously it was someone's birthday. The two blondes were surrounded by what looked like a group of random thugs cosplaying as cooks who were all wearing either bronze collars of the working class or iron collars of Zoro's own caste. It was no wonder the blonde didn't care about his collar, from the looks of the picture, he never had.

Said blonde re-emerged from a bathroom carrying a rather well sized first aid kit that looked well used. That made Zoro wonder, did Sanji pick up everyone he saw on the streets in need of help or did he just know people that got into fights often? Sanji looked at Zoro with amusement easily following his gaze to one of his favorite photos. He then settled on the coffee table in front of Zoro and instructed him to take his shirt off gently, so as not to aggravate his wounds, and once said obstruction was peeled away, began to clean the deep slash wounds that decorated Zoro's chest with gentle easy strokes with rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab that came with practice.

"You clean wounds a lot." Zoro stated his observation clearly.

"My best friend and I get into a lot of fights together; we've learned to keep a kit at each of our places, just in case. Plus, he can't always patch himself up, so he's taught me the basics at least, though he's much more talented at this kind of thing than I am." Sanji answered simply not taking his eyes off his work though the slight smile playing about his face spoke greatly of his fondness for his said friend.

"I somehow doubt you get into a lot of fights." Zoro smirked as Sanji stopped his movements from a moment in annoyance before continuing with a sigh. Zoro couldn't stop then, it was just too fun to get a rise of emotion from the blonde. "You're scrawny, and while you have height, what can a pampered guy like you know about fighting? You've probably never landed a single punch." Quickly Sanji dug the cotton swab a little deeper than necessary into Zoro's wound making the swordsman give a hiss. "Bastard."

"You're right," Sanji said with a small chuckle making Zoro's eyebrows tweak upward. "I've never punched anyone, but that's because my hands are too precious to risk their injury just to hurt another. I'm a cook, even if society says I'm some important individual just because I was born, for me it's as simple as that. I feed people, if I hurt my hands I can't cook; punching isn't worth that risk. So I don't punch, but then again I don't need to. I practice an altered form of Savate a martial arts that only uses the legs to fight, so I don't have to worry about injuring my hands." Sanji glances to Zoro's hip, to the three swords that were tucked safely into the man's hamaraki. "You fight differently as well don't you?"

Zoro was silent, some small part of him didn't want to admit that for the second time that day he'd possibly misjudged the man in front of him who had now moved on to wrapping Zoro's wounds in firm layer bandages. He was beginning to get even more curious about Sanji. The man seemed to be defying every status quo the society had raised him to believe.

"And we're done." Sanji announced triumphantly, turning to pack up the first aid kit. "I suggest that you rest for a while before going home, I don't want you to stupidly mess up all my hard work." Sanji scoffed.

Zoro responded by rolling his eyes, "Yeah right, shit-cook I probably could have done a better job by doing it myself."

"Ungrateful marimo," Sanji responded, "And, just so you know, my cooking is amazing, but I guess a barbarian like you wouldn't recognize good food if it kicked you in the face."

Zoro lay back making himself at home on Sanji's couch, hell; he was stuck here until the stupid curly-brow let him leave anyway so might as well get comfortable. He closed his eyes and let the fatigue of the day settle over him like a wool blanket dragging him down to near sub-consciousness. Just as he was drifting off he heard the soft clank of a dish being sat down on the coffee table in front of him followed by the most appetizing mixture of scents wafted over him making his mouth water and his eyes to slowly open to see the arrangement of food placed before him. Even from the smell Zoro could tell the meal before him was going to be better than any he'd ever consumed. Now the trouble was keeping his reaction completely blank so that he could continue to annoy his host. It was going to be tough, but there was a good reason that only Nami could beat Zoro at poker. He had no tell and she without a doubt cheated, he just couldn't prove it.

No bothering to sit up, Zoro moved the plate of food from the table onto his lap. He began eating quickly, but trying not to show just how wonderful Sanji's cooking really was. The intricate laces of flavors and undertones flowed over his tongue leaving behind a spicy tang that was agonizingly delicious. It was hard to keep the satisfaction from appearing on his face, but after shoveling the rest of the food into his mouth, Zoro gently placed the plate back onto the coffee table in triumph.

Sanji's curled eyebrow twitched as he grimaced in response to Zoro's terrible table manners. His previous thoughts had been proven accurate. This man had absolutely no knowledge of etiquette and therefore was in fact a barbarian. Then again Sanji couldn't find it in himself to blame him. Subconsciously reaching up he felt the smooth cold texture of his collar and sighed. This society manipulated its citizens into hating each other by creating gaps between the classes. It was the reason Zoro was leery about him earlier. For Sanji dwelling on these thoughts left a bitter taste in his mouth. Every day he would see the animosity that the society bred, and everyday his actions to stop it would be proven ineffective once again. A wave of guilt washed over Sanji that soon led him to light up a cigarette. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back letting the temporary calm soothe him for a moment. It didn't last long.

…

It had been a good while since the rat resembling marine had began following the blood trail that wound hap-hazardly through the district of Mariejoise. The marine was convinced that the person was not from the highest caste because only an outsider could get this hopelessly lost in such an easily navigated place. He began to wonder if the poor wretch would be dead by the time he found them since the amount of blood lost seemed astounding to the marine. But, if the intruder was dead, that would ruin all his fun. Yes, this marine had already thought up a number of tortures and injuries he was going to inflict on his victim. He was a malicious and sick bastard.

He turned down an alley between two large estates to see the blood trail stop, double back, and finally lead to a door of the estate on the left. The marine groaned. Just what he needed some stuck up celestial dragon sneaking in and stealing his fun. It had happened before. A member of the highest caste would catch wind of an intruder and seek them out to take their own demented fun out of abusing the individual before military men like him could have their fun. Unfortunately for the marine, once an intruder was possessed by a celestial dragon, the military had no rights to do anything about it. Privilege of the highest caste, one could say. But, hoping by some miracle the intruder hadn't been caught or the home owner wouldn't care if he partook in the torture as well, the marine raised his hand and knocked firmly on the door.

…

It was days like today that made Tralfager Law remember just why he loved his job. Law wasn't the type of person that became a surgeon because he wanted to save lives, he wasn't that naïve. Alternatively, Law was driven by a much different set of values; the need to have his curiosity satisfied, the need to be entertained, and the need for violence. Today, by all means, had been a great day. In total Law had performed a substantial 8 surgeries; three appendectomies, two carotid endarterectomies, one coronary artery bypass, and two tonsillectomies. There was nothing Law loved to do more than perform surgery on his patients. He believed that the human body was the most interesting and most complex mechanism to come into existence in the world, and he wanted to know everything about it.

Some of Law's coworkers thought he was insane, maybe they were correct. Law wanted to know things about humans that most doctors didn't feel the need to know. Many strange and gruesome questions came to mind that he wanted more than anything to know the answer to. What temperature was the boiling point for the grey matter inside a human brain? Given a certain time of exposure, what temperature was it that the human body can no longer correct negative body temperature? What was the amount of force measured in Newtons that had to be applied to a human femur, given a specific speed and femur mass, to make said femur shatter? These are the types of questions Law wanted to know the answers to. Sometimes, Law would be gifted with cadavers whom he could use to find the answer to these questions. But that wasn't why today was so great.

No, today after the magnificent surgeries had all been completed Law came to the realization that the rest of his time at work would be akin to torture. For today, Law was scheduled for clinic duty at the hospital and research facility he worked at. Law groaned as he downed his twelfth mug of black coffee while he read of his scheduled date with pure unadulterated boredom. He frowned at the fact that his perfect day would most likely be ruined by stupid mothers bringing in their children with common colds to the emergency clinic, and stupid sluts of both genders finding out that sex does transmit diseases.

Law was astounded everyday by just how idiotic people could be. The best case of stupidity he had seen so far had been a woman who came in with a toothache. A toothache! Did the hospital look like a dentist's office? No? Then why did you come here? Said woman then got very agitated with Law because he wasn't a dentist and therefore wasn't going to waste his time on her. So he had to beat the crap out of her, though Sanji had scolded him harshly for it later. He'd yelled about how Law shouldn't have raised one finger against a woman and would only feed Law rice that night for dinner. It was the best damn rice Law had ever had, but still! One day, Law had worried; Sanji would die at the hands of a woman.

He sighed heavily at his discovery and began his slow trudge toward the emergency clinic, a fair distance away from the surgical wing. He greeted the passersby and his coworkers with politeness but also indifference as he passed. He felt no need to become acquainted with those people; he knew who his real friends were. It had taken time, but Law now knew who he could trust; Sanji and a group of friends that had been with him since the beginning. With him as their leader they called themselves the Heart Pirates even though pirates didn't exist anymore many had taken the idea from those in history. In this manner the city was full of pirates and it had been for generations.

Law turned the final corner and arrived at boredom city, the emergency clinic. Instantly all eyes turned on him, but he'd come to expect that. Sanji had once dubbed him, "Mr. Badass" and "Sex on Legs the 3rd" though Law didn't know where the 3rd came from. Given the Sanji was drunk beyond logical thinking at the time, it probably just sounded nice in his head. God, those were the times Law loved to share with the blonde. What Sanji didn't know was that, if Law was sex on legs; Sanji was the epitome of beauty. He was also the only one who could calm Law down when his nightmares struck, besides his best friend; a talking polar bear named Bepo. Therefore, most nights Law either stayed with Sanji or Bepo stayed at Law's house, especially when his insomnia became too perceivable.

To Law's dismay, not all of the eyes were focused on Law's stunningly good looks as he recognized a military police officer smoking 3, yes 3, cigars in the medical clinic lock his eyes on him. He recognized the aging man as Captain Smoker, a fitting name if Law thought about it. Beside him was his young lieutenant Tashige, a fine woman with thick rimmed glasses. She was often tasked with keeping her commander out of trouble. Behind them was a man in kairoseki handcuffs with a guard at each of his sides to make sure he didn't make any unwanted moves.

The man had flaming red hair held in a spiky manner pointing in multiple directions by a pair of goggles. His green eyes narrowed showing a malicious edge as they raked Law's figure assessing him. The man seemed to be wearing a layer of dark black lipstick over his lips so that they contrasted to his pale sink. He wore a gaudy reddish-black fur coat the hung open to reveal his broad and thickly muscled chest. Law noticed a wound feebly bandaged as the blood had already painted the wrapping dark red down the right side of the man's chest. Law determined that the wound must be why the man was here, though why he was in police custody was still a mystery. Even more eye-catching than his coat, and his chest, was the pair of oddly colored pants the man wore. Law didn't quite understand what the pattern on them was supposed to be. The pants were a bright yellow and had black markings that were too wide spread to be leopard but not spread out enough to be giraffe. In total the man looked quite flamboyant to Law and the maniacal smile the man draped across his face made shivers run down his spine and his hair stand on end.

The man on the other hand found the doctor in front of him quite the oddity. The doctor's dark black hair and olive skin made him look exotic in the building with all white walls. His golden eyes appeared at first to look particularly bored but as the man looked closer he saw a keen intellect and unending curiosity hidden in their depths. Under those said eyes were deep dark circles that formed from a lack of sleep. From that point on, the man noticed very un-doctor-like things about Law; like the fact that under his lab coat the doctor wore a yellow hoodie with black sleeves and hood and weird skinny jeans with black circular spots randomly collected on the blue denim. Or the fact that the doctor's forearms and hands were marked with black tattoo ink and his sleeves were rolled up to reveal this. That ink spelled 'DEATH' between the man's knuckles and his fingers' first joint on both hands. Furthermore, the man wore heels! At least 3 inch heeled black leather boots adorned his feet as earrings pierced both his ears. What kind of doctor was this guy? Why did everyone ignore his obvious lack of work attire? The doctor smirked at the man; his handsome face made it seem almost seductive. Kidd was certain that was just a trick of the lighting.

"Well, well, well, Smoker-ya, you've brought in someone very interesting today." Law drawled. "Whom do I have the pleasure of examining today?"

"This is "Captain" Eustass Kidd wanted for multiple accounts of theft, assault, and even a couple murders. It took a while to catch him, but instead of doing the easiest thing and escorting him directly to prison where he can live out the rest of his life sentence he's sure to get, I have to bring him to this stupid hospital to get a wound treated." Smoker complained in his grave voice while continuing to smoke.

"Now, Smoker-san you know as well as I that all wounds that we inflict must receive proper treatment or we'll be punished." Tashige stated pushing her glasses further back on her nose.

"I know, Tashige," Smoker bellowed, "that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Oi, assholes, you gonna stop talking about me with me right here, or are we gonna be here all damn day?" Kidd groaned.

"Sorry, Eustass-ya, shall we?" Law laughed gesturing to an open exam room.

"Whatever," Eustass said not wanting to play along with whatever game the creepy doctor was playing. He got up to follow Law to the room, but after a few steps all four of the police followed him. "Are you serious?" He growled.

"You aren't getting an inch out of my sight! Law, this man is dangerous he must be guarded at all times." Smoker replied.

"Ah, ah, ah," Law raised his voice while wagging his finger, "Smoker, even felons are protected through doctor-patient confidentiality."

"Law," Smoker seethed.

"Sorry, Smoker-ya, no exceptions," Law said grinning like a madman; mischief in his dark rimmed eyes. He wouldn't want Smoker, or anyone, for that matter ruining his chances of having fun with Mr. Eustass and whatever that entailed. He led Kidd to the room then turned back to say, "I can handle myself just fine," before closing the door. Smoker wasn't sure which of the two men to be concerned about after that.

"You sure you don't want at least one guard in here doc?" Kidd asked dawning a maniac smile bearing all of his teeth.

"I'm more than capable of taking care of myself." Law rolled his eyes as he reiterated his last statement. "Now, let's get that horrible excuse for a bandage wrap off."

The creepy doctor's cunning grin was back and Kidd had the nearly undeniable urge to wipe it off of his face. But he had to be patient. All too often Killer had reminded him that he was quick to take action before thinking. He'd let the man finish patching him up then he'd kill him. Kidd watched as Law approached him after equipping himself with latex gloves. Kidd had to hold back the strong urge to pummel the doctor to the floor when he stepped into his personal space.

Grabbing a pair of sterilized scissors, Law put one hand on Kidd's shoulder blade to keep him from moving while slowly and carefully cutting away the bandages barring him from addressing the redheads' wound. Once said blockage was removed Law's gaze went immediately to the long one inch deep cut running down Kidd's right side. Law put down the scissors in favor of gingerly running the tip of his gloved finger over the edge of the long injury. Law had always been intrigued by injuries the way the layers of skin could be sliced apart and how they looked and reacted then. He could see the skin that was disconnected from the part across from it leading to bleeding and the lower layers of skin that weren't meant to be exposed to open air appearing pink and red as it was still alive instead of the outer layers of skin that were dead.

"Are you going to keep poking and staring at me or are you going to fix me up doc?" Kidd asked after observing Law look at him with a strange emotion in his golden eyes for a few minutes.

"Ah," Law said snapping out of his trance and smiling innocently. "Yes, I'll have to stitch this up as it's fairly deep. I'll give you some anesthesia," Law reached for a drawer when his wrist was caught in a painful vise-like grip and his eyes returned to his patient with a clear glare shared between the two of them.

"No need," Kidd growled, before releasing Law, sure his point was well made.

"Very well," Law replied.

Something about that reaction interested law, but then again he had found Kidd very interesting thus far. Law then went about getting the rest of the equipment needed to stitch the wound, all while receiving menacing looks from his patient reminding him to not try anything funny. In truth those looks only made Law want to try something even more. Law thought about how easy it would be for him to use the equipment in the room to do numerous things to his patient, but held himself back for the time being. After all Kidd was currently in police custody and Law didn't want anyone intervening on his fun. So he would wait, by now he was sure Kidd had something up his sleeve after his reaction to the police following him and rejecting the anesthesia. Law was certain Kidd was planning to escape. Law decided he would play along and try to find Kidd again in a different setting where he had more freedom to do as he wished.

"This will hurt quite a bit." Law warned as he maneuvered the needle through Kidd's skin for the first time and heard Kidd hiss in pain.

Law moved one of his hands up to Kidd's shoulder once more so that he could hold Kidd steady. Law didn't want Kidd moving around too much since doing so would disrupt his work. With each stitch Kidd was finding it harder and harder not to kill Law as the doctor continued to take his time, seeming to enjoy the process of anchoring his flesh back together. Law was indeed enjoying the process as with every sound Kidd made washed over him. It pleased him to know that those reactions were solely caused by him. It made Law want to inflict more pain just to find out what other sounds his patient would make. Both men held back and as Law finished the stitches and wrapped bandages in a proper fashion over the large wound both men let out a held breath.

"Well then Eustass-ya, I believe that bandage will hold well, I suggest we return you now to the authorities." Law grinned when Kidd started laughing.

Kidd kicked out with his left leg knocking over the swiveling chair Law was occupying. Law's eyes widened as he fell hard onto his back as the wind was knocked out of his lungs. His stared at the ceiling blankly before Kidd's bound hands found their way around his neck hoisting him into the air. Law allowed a sneaky smile slide across his face.

"Sorry doc, but there's no way I'm going back with those guys." Kidd stated smiling broadly.

"I didn't figure you were, though I am very interested in what you will do. Thus far you've been fairly entertaining, but we're on the second story of a hospital and Smoker surely isn't going to let you out of here unscathed," Law retorted finding Kidd's hold to be strong enough to hold him effectively in place but not enough to restrict his breathing.

"You underestimate me, doctor; a mere fall from a second story window won't hurt me."

"Says the man with forty one new stitches wearing kairoseki handcuffs," Law pestered.

Kidd narrowed his eyes dangerously. While he found the creepy raccoon eyed doctor interesting the man was starting to grate on his last nerve. Kidd then used all his strength, though it was drained from the kairoseki around his wrists into throwing Law into a metal rolling cabinet in which medical supplies were commonly held. The impact caused Law to cough up saliva after the breath was again knocked out of him as he held his now bruised shoulder with his opposite hand. He tried to stand, still smirking when Smoker tackled his way through the door obviously hearing the previous noise made by Law colliding with the cabinet.

"It looks like it's my time to leave, see you round creepy raccoon." Kidd said. insane smile still on his lips as he leapt out the window shattering it in the process only to land safely on his feet with only a few more scratches to show for his escape.

"Shit," Smoker bellowed, "Tashige get the others we have to follow him."

"Yes sir," Tashige answered to her commanding officer as he ran from the room already in pursuit. She turns to Law offering, "You should head home for today, I'm sure you're fairly shaken up by all of this," before following after Smoker.

"Maybe I will," Law answers with adrenaline still pulsing pleasantly through his veins. His body was still responding to the previous situation as his mouth watered at seeing the true Eustass Kidd. Law would find a way to see him again, after all he couldn't let such an interesting specimen escape him.

But that could wait, Law, coming down from his adrenaline high, was starting to feel fatigued and after consuming nothing but coffee for the last nine hours, his stomach was making its emptiness known to him. He would go to Sanji's he decided, if not only for his wonderful cooking and comfortable bed but also so Law could annoying him with today's events Law's new conquest. Sanji often hated it when Law would plague him with details about men Law was interested in, but what could Law do, it was just so fun to make him flustered. Law began making his way to Sanji's after informing his supervisor he would be leaving early do it the incident. Law walked down the streets smiling to himself, imagining finding Kidd again.


	3. Chapter 3

A knock on the door snapped Sanji and Zoro out of their relaxed states instantly, as both jolted upright to turn to face the door. It was the door that led to the alley they'd come from earlier and it sounded anything but friendly. Sanji started making his way towards the door when a whiny voice coming from behind it stopped him.

"This is the police, there is an intruder in the area and we believe that that individual is in this estate, open the door." The voice said sounding like nails on a chalkboard.

"Shit," Zoro said reaching for his swords; he wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Don't you dare marimo." Sanji said approaching Zoro once more. "You fight them and even more guards will come, even if you kill this one it will only make things worse."

"I'm not going to just surrender dart-brow!" Zoro seethed.

"I didn't say to shit-swordsman."

"Then what?"

"Just shut up and follow my lead." Sanji said putting one hand to his chin to think.

"This is the police if you don't open this door; I have the authority to break it down on behalf of your safety being endangered." The voice elaborated.

"One minute." Sanji yelled before turning back to Zoro. "Take off your shirt and lie back down on the couch."

"What?" Zoro asked wondering what the cook could possibly be thinking. On one hand he had no real reason not to trust Sanji but on the other hand he had no reason to take his chances trusting a cop either.

"Just shut up and do as I say marimo. I know what I'm doing." Sanji said taking off his suit jacket and tossing it to the floor while loosening his tie and unbuttoning one button of his shirt. He headed to the kitchen to grab the final thing, and returned seconds later with a knife.

"What are you doing?" Zoro asked even more confused than he was before.

"Just play along," Sanji entreated him. "Now, give me your swords."

"No fucking way shit-cook." Zoro growled keeping his voice low so they couldn't be overheard.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you, you stupid moss. We need to trick the guard into thinking I brought you here and you are my prisoner, if you have swords it'll give us away." Sanji explained angrily.

Zoro paused but gave in and took his swords from around his waist handing them to Sanji who put them gently into a closet. He then undid Zoro's bandages swiftly as he lay back down on the couch. Giving Zoro one last look, Sanji went over and answered the door leaning against one side of the door frame as he assessed the scrawny and short man before him.

"Evening Officer, what brings you to this neck woods at this time of night." Sanji asks bringing the hand in which he holds the knife to his eye level as if examining it aloofly, as if it were but a nail file.

"Good evening sir," The marine takes off his hat and bows lowly to Sanji, while said blonde smiles uneasily. "I was following a blood trail of an intruder of this esteemed area, and it seems as though the trail leads straight to this door. I'm sorry to say that I believe said intruder is now in your home. By law, I cannot leave until I know for certain that individual cannot harm you. Please, allow me inside." The man moves to walk in but is blocked by Sanji.

"I assure you I'm in no danger. Some commoner cannot pose any threat to me." Sanji said allowing his voice to take a mocking tone he'd heard constantly throughout his life. "For Peat's sake those lower-class wretches are just livestock compared to me. They wouldn't dare raise a single finger against me."

"Excuse my rudeness, but I believe you're underestimating them, sir." The marine retorted. He didn't want Sanji to ruin his plans. The marine surmised that all he had to do to get Sanji to relinquish the intruder to his custody was to prove that the intruder whoever they were was dangerous. After that the Sanji being the celestial dragon that he is would either give the intruder to him or kill the poor bastard. Celestial dragons were known to have very short tempers and very loose morals. "I'd like to see the intruder if you don't mind, so that I can be certain that you're not under any duress and that they pose no harm."

Sanji made a small 'hmp' noise in the back of his throat, flipping his hair and stepped aside before adding, "You should be lucky if I don't have a word with your supervisor about this."

Sanji watched the man closely as the marine inspected his house with the carpet stained with blood leading straight to Zoro's position on the couch; the marine spotted him nearly immediately. Sanji's muscles tensed in anticipation of the man's reaction. He watched as Zoro leveled a killer glare at the man. The marine smirked maliciously.

"Quite an insolent animal isn't he? He doesn't know his place; it's obvious from the way he's looking at me now. I apologize, sir, but I think it would be in everyone's best interest if he came with me. Some dogs just belong in the pound don't you think?" The marine suggested as if a glare was punishable by law. The man then took out a pair of handcuffs as Sanji watched Zoro's eyes dangerously narrow.

"I don't think so." Sanji stated still using the voice he'd heard living surrounded by people who thought they were better than everyone else. "You just want the livestock for yourself." Sanji accused.

The marine froze; it wasn't often that a celestial dragon questioned him on this usually if the intruder made any sign of resistance the dragon would hand them over to be punished. He eyed Sanji warily. There was something off about him in the marine's opinion. For one the blonde was not wearing a protective suit like most celestial dragons did to keep themselves from breathing the same air that the lower-classes breathed. Also the blonde had blocked him at every point thus far. Surely, the blonde was hiding something.

"I assure you sir this is for your own safety this man is obviously a threat to the public safety and I'd be surprised if he didn't harm you." The marine said voice dripping with false concern. "Unless you can prove to me that this man will not harm you, I am taking him into custody."

Zoro and Sanji exchanged a quick glance before Sanji smiled sweetly. "Then I'll prove it." He declared walking up to where Zoro was reclining on the couch giving him a confused but intrigued look.

"What?" The marine asked astounded.

"You said you wanted proof, so I'll give it to you. Then you can leave my property in peace like the good little solider you're pretending to be." A sinister smile draped itself on Sanji's lips as he spoke each syllable with disgust.

Zoro's eyebrow tweaked upwards nearly unnoticeably as Sanji approached him. The knife was still in his hand. Their eyes met and an understanding was exchanged between them. Let's put on a show.

…

Ace ran through the streets towards the Going Merry Bar in the business district, sticking to the shadows so as not to be spotted by others, who would notice the iron collar around his neck. It'd been hours since he and Zoro were supposed to meet back at their place in the lowest caste district. And while Zoro normally did show up late due to his terrible sense of direction, Ace knew about Luffy's and Zoro's plan to take out Buggy and his crew. Was he wandering around with a major injury? Again? Zoro's other slightly annoying tendency was to take his injuries far too lightly. Ace had a bad feeling about that.

Therefore he was running to the Going Merry that Luffy had decided was his crew's hiding spot. He took the darkest dankest alleyways to keep from being spotted. Unfortunately for Ace there was another man who preferred to stick to the shadows. And, unfortunately for that man, Ace wasn't watching where he was going.

The collision that ensued then was by all means painful and hilarious. Both men were sent onto their butts on the pavement after Ace's head collided with the older man's muscled torso. Said man then dropped his briefcase that then exploded it contents over the area in a cartoonish manner. Ace had to stop himself from laughing. The older man watched with an expression of annoyance hidden under deep, deep boredom as the precious papers he'd spent hours finishing floated softly to the ground around him. _Well, _the man thought, _Oyaji's going to have to wait a bit longer for those reports or so it would seem yoi. _The man sighs running his fingers through pineapple shaped blonde hair. Ace couldn't help to stare at the man's strange locks before shaking himself out of his trance.

"Sorry, about that man, I sometimes space out when I thinking… and running." Ace offers starting to collect his victim's documents.

"No worries, yoi," The man replied also collecting the scattered reports. "I've a lot of siblings with the same habit."

"They sound a lot like my brother and I." Ace reminisced.

"Is that so, yoi," Marco asked standing up since both of them have collected all of the scattered documents.

Ace stood as well ready to hand over his collection of the documents when he caught sight of it. It, meaning the pure silver collar shining in the moonlight. Ace couldn't help but think it didn't quite go with the man's blonde hair. But other than that the collar held an altogether worse representation. Ace had become used to it by now. Being of the Untouchable Caste meant that most people Ace had encountered were better than him, and most of them loved to painfully remind those with iron collars where their place was. Any second now, Ace knew, this man would change from a kind stranger to another privileged ass-hat like everyone else. Ace sighed, _might as well get it over with, _he lowered his eyes to the ground and stiffly handed the stack of papers to the other man.

Marco tilted his head to the side very slightly and raised one of his highly arched eyebrows just a little bit higher. _What's with the sudden change of attitude? _ Marco's forehead creased while he took the papers from the younger man. He tried to catch the ravenette's gaze when his noticed the cause of the man's strange behavior. Marco sighed slightly at the sight of the iron collar around the young man's neck. Marco's expression turned gentle and a thin smile caressed his face.

"Oi, look at me, yoi." Marco said blankly.

Ace grit his teeth but looked up to meet Marco's eyes. What he expected to see was vile cruelty and superiority, what he found was deep empathetic understanding mixed with wise intellect. The man met his gaze and held Ace there enraptured in the bright blue of his irises that looked so much like the sky on a clear day, a very light nearly fiery blue. Ace felt his breath catch.

Marco felt the same when he stared into his counterpart's charcoal hues. They were dark and yet full of life. Marco was sure the boy had seen more horrible things more than was his fair share, his actions spoke of that enough. He was relieved that at least the boy had retained some hope and joy, his eyes seemed almost childish if not for the darker flecks that seemed to speak of troubles that ran deep below the surface.

"Thank you," Marco said rearranging the papers back into his briefcase neatly even if they were no longer in order, suddenly he wished he'd stapled the separate parts of the documents together, but it seemed as though he would have to reorganize them again before reporting to Oyaji.

"Uh," Ace gaped in surprise then blabbered nervously, "I didn't really do anything that great. I mean I'm the one who messed them up in the first place." He said as his hand went to scratch the back of his neck.

Marco chuckled, "True but most people wouldn't have stopped to pick them up anyway, so I still had to thank you." Marco's face relaxed into its natural state of boredom as he reached out his hand. "I'm Marco."

"I-I'm Ace. Portgus D. Ace," Ace stuttered still not trusting the man in front of him.

He gave a steady handshake to the man. He decided that the man didn't pose any threat and decided to look closer at his new acquaintance. Marco was dressed fairly sharply, Ace figured it had something to do with the man's position in society, but decided not to dwell on it. Marco was wearing black dress slacks and shoes with a white dress shirt adorned with thin light blue stripes and a matching blue tie that made his eyes all the more interesting. Ace's eye were caught again by the blonde's strange hair cut, he couldn't help but wonder if it was the result of some prank or if the man really liked his hair in the shape that reminded him so easily of a tropical fruit. Ace was contemplating this when darkness started to crowd his vision.

"Oh shit~" Ace slurred before falling into a deep sleep, expecting to hit the ground painfully.

Marco on the other hand hadn't expected the young man in front of him, who was obviously checking him out, to suddenly fall to the ground. Marco's brain went instantly into protective brother mode as it often did because of his numerous siblings and their not so controlled drinking habits. He reached his arms out, briefcase still safely in his hands to catch Ace under the arms as he fell and lowered him to the ground. Marco was about to check him for a response, assuming him to be unconscious, when he heard a snoring sound being admitted from the younger man. Marco couldn't help but chuckle deeply.

"Narcolepsy," Marco stated amused."But what am I supposed to do now." He sighed.

...

Zoro watched as Sanji nervously, but steadily slinked his way over to him somehow managing to look wholly graceful as he approached and then climbed on top of Zoro's outstretched form. _Damn,_ Zoro couldn't help but think as Sanji settled on top of him supporting himself with his forearm and knees while his hand with the knife in it came to rest at his neck.

"If you dare even move, swine, I'll cut open your throat." Sanji said moving his mouth close to Zoro's ear so that his breath ghosted across Zoro's skin eliciting a shiver that the marine interoperated as fear, though he was far from the truth.

Sanji leaned closer taking Zoro's earlobe, earrings and all, into his mouth. He gently messaged the cartilage with his teeth and tongue. Sanji's hand in which the knife was not held traveled down Zoro's shoulder to his injured abdomen. He ran his nails along the edge of the wounds he previously was trying to dress. He didn't scratch, but merely pressed down to draw small beads of blood from the wound. The act was careful, calculated, and tender as he ran his fingers over the multitude of cuts. Zoro couldn't help but be a bit impressed with the cook's control.

Sanji moved the knife slightly away from the swordsman's neck, and it was tantalizing for Zoro as he stopped himself from moving to get it out of the cook's grasp. A brief glance shared between the two stopped his movements. Sanji smirked, because, fuck, if they were in this situation anyway, why not have some fun with it? Sanji moved one of his legs in between Zoro's earning him a very quite growling noise, at which the man couldn't help but roll his eyes at. He responded by moving gradually down Zoro's jaw, then to his neck, then to his scarred and injured torso leaving bites and bruises as he tugged and sucked at the flesh earning small gaps and moans from the man beneath him.

Zoro then turned his head into the back of the couch, hiding the slight dusting of red that colored his tanned skin away from the man inflicting it upon him and the other man in the room who was still watching with a mixture of surprise and disgust painted on his face. The swordsman didn't want to admit the reaction his body was giving the cook. He knew gender didn't matter to him, he'd had his first sexual experience with his best friend, although not for the best reasons, and short flings with the two women in their crew, before they found their true loves that is. But for some stupid, privileged, infuriating blonde guy he just met, the reaction that could be drawn from him irked him.

Sanji was dealing with a similar problem. Since he was dealing with the man's wounds before he'd not paid attention to the swordsman's physique, which he noticed now was built like some sort of roman hero. He noticed the man's softly tanned skinned that hid the perfectly toned muscles beneath it. He intertwined his non-knife-holding hand in Zoro's short oddly colored hair noticing it was somewhat rough but not unpleasant; he tugged at it slightly in curiosity.

…

The marine had no idea what he was supposed to be watching but there was something completely wrong with what was happening in front of him. In his mind, the marine had stumbled onto a disturbing and unsanitary. It was the closest thing to bestiality that the man thought possible in the modern era. For goodness sake, the Celestial Dragon had said it himself, that mangy untouchable was nothing more than livestock and that was putting things nicely.

Those disgusting things were not people they were only wasted life, space, and resources. The rat like man didn't even see the reason for society to keep them alive other than to enjoy inflicting pain on them. But this was just plain nauseating. This Celestial Dragon seemed almost interested in the untouchable beneath him, or the man would have thought if not for the knife at the man's throat and the blood seeping from his wounds.

The marine was still unsure of the Celestial Dragons true intentions, but he was sure of at least one thing, he needed to get out of this place and he needed to get out of it now. The uneasy feeling in his gut was slowly crawling up his throat. He coughed and cleared his throat awkwardly before addressing the blonde.

"Well," The rat-man said, "It does seem that you have this filthy animal under control. May I ask where all the blood on the street came from, just for the explanation in my report, before I leave?"

"Che," The blonde said barely pausing in his actions, wanting to keep up the act. "I caused that of course, that's my masterpiece, wasn't it brilliant?" The blonde easily admitted not worried about any repercussions since he knew that there would be none.

"I see," The marine drew his words out before adding; "I'd thought that it had something to do with a criminal dressed as a clown that we saw nearby."

"Like hell," the blonde growled, "how dare you imply that? For a fact I didn't see a single clown in the area when I and this animal were there. Now would you please get the fuck off of my property?"

"Of course sir," The marine said while thinking _it would be my pleasure, freak. _The marine rushed out of the manner and heaved a sigh of relief once outside as he trembled with disgust, having been thoroughly creeped out.

…

Inside Sanji heaved a sigh of his own as the door closed. He started to ease his way off the couch after setting the knife on the coffee table. He wasn't expecting to be flipped suddenly and to find himself in the opposite position to where he had been.

"What the hell are you doing you stupid marimo?" Sanji yelled pushing, quite ineffectively at Zoro's shoulders trying to dislodge the man from his position above him and enabling him to escape.

"Ooh~" Zoro taunted, "what's wrong crappy cook? Payback is a bitch sometimes isn't it, oh, well I guess it isn't this time."

"You fucking asshole get off of me!" Sanji shouted profanities.

"Now that wouldn't be fair." Zoro breathed leaning down. He placed one hand on Sanji shoulder to keep him from moving anywhere while the other carefully unbuttoned the rest of the buttons on Sanji's shirt.

"What the hell are you doing you perverted moss!" Sanji ground his teeth and hissed.

Zoro gave a dismissive snort his lips meeting the skin beneath Sanji's jaw bone before biting softly at the porcelain tissue causing the blonde to gasp and immediately tense. Zoro's hand pushed away the fabric of the blonde's chest so that his torso was uncovered. He then ran his hand up and down the exposed skin noticing that while the man beneath him was thin he had lean toned muscles that were very appealing. Sanji let a small moan escape him as he felt Zoro's calloused hand roam his chest and stomach until grasping firmly onto his hip that caused Sanji to shift uncomfortably.

Zoro raised himself slightly to get a good look at the cook. _Damn_, he couldn't help but think at the sight of the blonde. Those golden locks now mussed a little bit from the activity and that pale skin now colored darkly with red, blue eyes half lidded in something resembling pleasure or lust, while both mans breath came in heavier pants. The swordsman had to admit the cook looked amazing, the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Sanji breathed heavily looking into the swordsman face. Zoro pressed his lips to the other man's and felt the blonde freeze for a moment before responding.

As his eye slipped shut all Sanji could think was that he should not be kissing a man he'd just met, but damn the marimo knew what he was doing. It felt good and that was distracting him from such thoughts. He lifted his hands, one tracing Zoro's spine while the other entangled itself into the man's short green locks once more. He felt as Zoro's tongue traced his bottom lip requesting entrance and without a thought complied. He felt a new wave of heat pass over him as the other man's tongue entered his mouth. Sanji's body arched needing as much contact as he could get as the kiss became more and passionate clearing away his earlier protests as they fought for dominance neither willing to back down by an inch. Both men lost themselves in the heat of the moment reveling in the waves of heat and pleasure that coursed through them.

However when Zoro reached for Sanji's belt; it snapped Sanji out of the trance he was in. He knew that if things continued and the two men went all the way that night that he'd regret it immediately in the morning. Because, while Sanji would freely admit to being a complete flirt, he naively believed in true love and didn't approve of one night stands and sex without emotions. He'd already made enough mistakes where that was considered. He broke contact by turning his head to the side and pushing Zoro back sharply with both hands. Even while he still panted from the encounter he leveled a glare that could kill at the green haired man. He calmed and sealed himself.

"No," He stated sternly locking eyes with the other man pushing him back further.

"Oh, it seemed to me shit-cook that you were quite enjoying everything." Zoro questioned.

Sanji felt heat rise to his face again as he knew he couldn't deny that, but he couldn't give away his morals either. "Che, I'm not doing that with some stray marimo I just met!" He yelled as both men sat up again.

"Oi, what are you implying you shit-cook! You're the one who started all of this!" Zoro argued back, both men having completely refocused on the argument.

"That was me trying to save your stupid ass from getting arrested and killed! YOU decided to take it further!" Sanji replied enraged.

"Not like you weren't enjoying it!" Zoro retorted temper flaring as both men were now yelling.

"YOU STUPID MOSS HEAD!"

"DART-BROW!"


	4. Chapter 4

was dawn when a frustrated groan tore through the chatter at the Going Merry Bar. This Caused Luffy to pause in his feast to look at the redhead next to him, who had emitted the noise. Luffy couldn't help but laugh at his girlfriend's outburst. The crew had gathered at the Going Merry Bar owned by Ussop's girlfriend, Kaya, after Luffy, Nami, and Zoro had taken out Buggy and his crew. Everyone was here; except Zoro. Luffy's laugh echoed until every member of his crew was paying attention.

"Ney, Nami, Zoro's fine so there's no use worrying." Luffy said with absolute certainty that his best friend and first mate would return as normal after his directionless wander.

"How can you say that so easily?" Nami questioned loudly. "He was injured and he could be wandering around still bleeding."

Luffy laughed his signature laugh as Robin chimed in, "I believe Captain-san is correct, Swordsman-san will return just fine."

"You guys are probably right, I guess if anything was wrong Ace would've come here by now."

…

Ace awoke with a sigh and stretched his shoulders and cracked his neck. He rubbed his eyes rather childishly when he noticed that he was somewhere completely unfamiliar to him. It took him a few minutes to remember exactly what happened which was fairly common after he woke up from an attack, unless he had food in front of him. He remembered running into a man with blonde pineapple shaped hair and then passing out in said man's arms. Ace sat up alarmed to find he'd been sleeping on a very plush white couch covered in a bright blue fleece blanket.

In front of said couch, facing away from Ace sat Marco surrounded in papers separated into small stacks by specific document in a semi-circular fashion as he scratched his chin as the remaining disorganized papers sat in his lap as he tried to put it back with the rest of its other parts. Ace seeing the man from the alley was stunned while Marco figured the sounds behind him meant his house-guest was finally awake from his sudden nap.

"So you're awake now, yoi?" Marco asked not bothering to turn around to see Ace as he was completely focused on the task at hand.

"En." Ace said in affirmation. "Where are we?"

"At my house," Marco replied in a bored tone of voice before expanding on the topic, "I figured you wouldn't mind seeing as the only other option was to leave you to lie in the street."

"Right, thanks" Ace said embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head noticing what Marco was doing. "Are those the documents from your briefcase, the ones that I messed up?"

Marco chuckled, "Yes they are the ones from my briefcase, no, you don't need to be feeling guilty even if you did mess them up." Marco turned his head to lock eye with the younger man. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," Ace replied. "I'm a little drowsy but I always am after an episode, it'll go away soon. Can I help you put those back together?"

"Probably not," Marco sighed heavily, "They're complicated and probably no one else but I can tell them apart from one another. Thanks for the offer though."

"Sorry." Ace apologized again.

"It's fine." Marco reiterated. "Anyway it was my own fault for not stapling them together in the first place."

Ace was about to say something more when an annoying bell sound chimed throughout the house. Marco's head turned abruptly to his front door while his eyes narrowed in frustration. He had no doubt about whom the people at his front door were. He also had no doubt that if he'd let them in he'd be unable to finish his work that night. The people who were at the door were no doubt Marco's brothers, Thatch and Izou, since they had planned to go out drinking tonight. But after the early morning's happenings, Marco couldn't afford to leave the documents as they were.

"Open the door, you stupid blue chicken!" Thatch shouted while ringing the doorbell three more times rapid fire.

"I told them that I couldn't go." Marco grumbled under his breath; his expression turning deadly as he rose setting the unfinished stack of documents and his reading glasses to the side. He got to the door to find that his brothers were already slightly intoxicated. He sighed. "I told you both that I wouldn't be able to go. So, why are you here?"

"Marco, you've cancelled the last three times we've planned to go out and every time it's the same excuse you have to-" Thatch's voice cut off as both him and Izou forced their way into Marco's apartment and seeing a shirtless Ace on Marco's couch with his waist and lower still covered with Marco's blanket. Thinking he was naked their minds immediately went to the wrong place.

"Oh my god, Marco!" Izou shouted furious. "I'd expect this from Thatch but you?! He's half your age! And on your couch no less, I'm ashamed of you. To think my perfect older brother Marco is blowing off his family to sleep with some underage prostitute on his couch."

"What are you…" Marco started to ask while looking between both of his brothers while Ace blushed feverishly in the background.

"Geeze Marco I knew you didn't have time to date or anything but I didn't think that you'd go this far." Thatch added disappointed and shocked.

"It's not," Marco was cut off after he put together the pieces of his brothers' thoughts.

"Work, it's definitely not work!" Izou continued to rant.

"Um excuse me." Ace tried to intervene, getting up from the couch, but was blatantly ignored.

"I didn't even know you were into men, I mean there was that one time with red-hair but you both were completely hammered! If you had told me you were actually interested in men we could've just gone out to one of the bars I go to." Izou rambled.

Marco's patience was beginning to run out as his brothers continued to make assumptions while not allowing him to explain the situation at all. Marco tried not to use his authority as Oyaji's first mate and right hand man in matters outside of the business. But, seeing as neither of his two brothers were going to listen to him any other way. He easily stepped into his first-division commander tone of voice.

"Listen," Was all Marco had to say before both his brothers realized that it was no longer Marco, their older brother, but Marco, I am your superior and you will respect me, talking. "Sit down now, Yoi." Both brothers instantly followed the order and took the two armchairs that were in Marco's living-room; avoiding the couch. Ace stood awkwardly not really knowing what he should do.

"Um, should I leave?" He asked timidly, making both Thatch and Izou look at him with even more suspicion than before.

"No, that would only make things weirder, Yoi." Marco answered taking his former position in the circle of documents while Ace reseated himself on the couch uncomfortably. "Thatch, Izou," Marco began to explain, "This is Ace. I ran into him today on my way home from work, quite literally."

"I think I ran into you." Ace corrected chuckling.

"That's true." Macro nodded. "When we ran into each other this month's reports scattered and unfortunately ended up unorganized. I have to re-sort them by tomorrow morning when I have to hand them in to Oyaji." Ace cringed slightly at the word Oyaji.

"Ah," Thatch intervened, "that still doesn't explain why there's a half naked guy in your apartment."

"I have narcolepsy." Ace states by means to explain the situation. "I had an attack while we were talking."

"So I brought him here." Marco finished.

"And he's shirtless because?" Izou couldn't help but ask.

"I don't like shirts…" Ace answered innocently making the two younger brothers laugh while Marco remained unfazed.

"That's ok," Thatch chuckled, "As you can see Izou only likes dresses."

"Oi, they're kimonos!" Izou corrected making Thatch laugh even harder. Ace started to laugh as well; it was a light sound that filled the room easily. Marco couldn't help but crack a smile. Then Ace spied a clock hanging on the wall.

"Oh shit," Ace said jumping up from his seat. "I have to leave. I'm going to be late for work." He said and without thinking started to rush to the door.

"Do you even know how to get back from here, yoi?" Marco asked glancing up from the papers.

"Crap, no," Ace admitted, "do you know how I can get back to the East District?"

"Yeah," Marco said getting up from his spot on the floor. "I'll lead you there, yoi."

"Are you sure?" Ace asked not wanting to make the man go out of his way to take him home after everything else that he'd done that day.

"Yeah," Marco said confidently before turning to his brothers and adding, "Don't mess up those papers while I'm gone or I'll make you spend all tomorrow re-organizing them, yoi."

"Yeah, yeah" Both brothers chimed nonchalantly.

Marco sighed wondering if he'd get any sleep that night. He closed the door behind him and Ace.

…

The sun was above the horizon when another knock graced Sanji's door causing both the men in the house to frown and glare at the door. After all, the last knock had not brought a happy, or welcome, visitor. But Sanji relaxed when he heard his best friend's voice coming from behind the entrance.

"Sanji-ya, let me in I'm starving." Law whined sarcastically before chuckling to himself.

Sanji couldn't help but smile as he walked over to door and opened it all the way before being ambushed as Law threw himself to Sanji and wrapped the blonde in his arms. Sanji's smile grew as he struggled to stay upright due to his friend knocking him slightly off balance. It hadn't been long since they'd last seen each over, just over 36 hours in fact, but Law had always disregarded personal space and Sanji gave up trying to correct it after about two months.

"Sanji-ya can I sleep over?" Law asked nuzzling into the crook of Sanji's neck breathing in the scents of spices, cigarettes, and subtle cologne.

"Since when do you ask permission all of a sudden?" Sanji asked.

Law laughed manically, "You're right even if you said no I'd still stay, so you're stuck with me."

Zoro didn't know what to think about the interaction happening in front of him. But Sanji and his visitor's relationship looked anything but strictly platonic. From Zoro's point a view it looked like Sanji was welcoming home his lover. Zoro had to admit the guy who just walked in was very attractive, but when he was making out with Sanji; the blonde's behavior didn't suggest that he was taken. The whole thing left Zoro very confused.

Law finally released Sanji, which resulted in him getting a better look of his blonde best friend, what he saw unsettled him greatly. Sanji's pristine golden locks were all mussed. His suit jacket was completely absent, which it rarely was, his shirt was unbuttoned to the third button. The pale skin revealed by the missing and unbuttoned fabric was littered with small bites and bruises. It unsettled Law to his very core and he couldn't contain a low growl that emitted from his throat. Zoro tensed at that sound knowing exactly what it was a reaction to while Sanji tilted his head to the side in a cute and confused manner.

"Ney, Sanji-ya," Law queried, "who put these marks on your skin?" Law's temper flared, he'd always been extremely protective, even possessive, of Sanji. It didn't sit well with him that someone got this close to the blonde without him knowing. "Who fucking did this?" Law hissed.

Sanji blushed crimson realizing what Law was referring to as Law caressed the small bites and marks left by Zoro earlier. "That's-" Sanji broke off not really sure how to explain everything that had happened that night when the worst thing that could have happened, happened. Zoro sneezed.

Law's neck nearly cracked from turning his head to the side so quickly towards the green haired man on the couch. _Oh shit, _echoed in both Sanji and Zoro's minds. Law's smile turned malicious and violent as his eyes narrowed at the green haired man situated on Sanji's couch. Law started towards the man with full intentions to harm, maim, or even kill him for touching his friend. Sanji saw what was about to happen, with Zoro looking anxiously toward the closet in which his swords were stored and Law looking at Zoro like he was going to murder him, and intervened.

"Oi," Sanji snapped stepping in front of Law and stopping his progress, "Law you need to calm down and let me explain."

"Let you explain," Law snarled, "let you explain what? How some random guy I've never seen before is sitting on your couch after obviously having some kind of heated interaction with you and you're protecting him? Or how there's a blood trail leading right to said guy?" Law ranted. "God damn it, Sanji I'm trying to protect you but I come here and find this! How am I supposed to protect you if you don't tell me anything?" Law was close to shedding tears, but he held them back.

It hadn't been more than four months since the incident. Law couldn't help but flash back to that moment when he'd thought he'd lost the blonde. All it had taken was for Sanji to let in, to save, one bad seed, and it'd almost cost him his life. Not a single physical scar was left from that time, but that wasn't to say that the emotional ones were to be deigned.

"How do you know he's not from Krieg's crew?" Law whispered.

"Law," Sanji looked down at the floor with guilt but went on none the less, "I can't ignore people that I can help just because one betrayed me. And I'm not going to run away from Krieg and his thugs either."

"You're so stubborn," Law sighed as he let his eyes flick back to the strange intruder as he reached out and held one of Sanji's hands. "You better have a damn good explanation."

"I do," Sanji assured pulling Law towards the kitchen, "let's get you some food, I'm sure that you've had nothing but coffee all day."

Law laughed allowing Sanji to pull him easily into the kitchen.

Zoro watched the two disappear and wondered for a minute if he shouldn't just grab his swords and leave. But something about the other two's conversation intrigued him, although a small part of the reason he wanted to say had nothing to do with their conversation and everything to do with how Sanji had looked blushing underneath him. The name that came up in the conversation, "Krieg", had struck some cord in Zoro's mind but he wasn't sure how. He thought possibly that Nami or Robin had mentioned that name, but, admittedly he hadn't paid that much attention the only time he did was when the crew had decided who to take on next.

Then there was what the other man, Law, had said, and how he'd said it. Something was obviously going on and Zoro was very curious as to what it was. It seemed to him that the cook had gotten into some kind of trouble. That was annoying to him because, other than the man being quick to anger and somewhat annoying. Sanji had proven thus far to be a good person; especially considering what was to be normally expected from someone who was a celestial dragon. Therefore, Zoro decided he would wait for the two to return, and ask the women of his own crew about Krieg when he got back to the Going Merry.

…

Elsewhere, in the West District, Kidd finally arrived back to the rest of his crew in an old abandoned hotel they'd transformed into their hideout. The smell that surrounded the place was of blood and alcohol. Kidd grinned with a maniac smile nearly tearing his face as he heard screams coming from inside the structure. Killer seemed to be managing business well in his absence.

Kidd entered through the front door that was steel forged from a shipwreck some time ago and left to rust before Killer and he had picked it up for their use of it. He walked through the living room and kitchen down the stair to the room they used as a torture room for when they needed to persuade their enemies or former allies out of information in a painful manner. The screams reached their peak as he entered said room.

Killer stood his weapons at the ready in front of a man tied to a wooden chair. It was obvious that Killer was growing impatient with the man who sat in front of him, who was withholding information about the leak in information that had caused Kidd earlier arrest by the police. Kidd had been meeting Jewelry Bonney for a fight when the cops swarmed the scene. Bonney's whole crew besides the woman herself had been arrested, but Kidd had served as a distraction so his crew could escape and regroup later. Logically, the leak had to be from Kidd's crew. Killer had already removed the man's finger and toe nails, cut off part of his ear, and removed the pinky finger on the man's left hand. The man was a sniveling, bleeding wreck.

"I told you I don't know anything about how the police got the information on the meeting. I had nothing to do with it." The man pleaded.

"Do you believe him Captain?" Killer asked Kidd, knowing he was there without needing to turn his head.

"Not a fucking word," Kidd smiled sadistically.

"Me neither," Killer agreed, "so let me ask, what do we do with liars and traitors, captain?"

"That's simple," Kidd chuckled darkly, "we cut out their tongues so they can't leak anymore information. We cut off their ears so they can't eavesdrop on what we're planning. We gouge out their eyes so they can't spy on us any longer, we take a finger or toe for every crewmember they got killed, and we drive a screw into their skin for every injury sustained because of the information spilt." Kidd paused, "And, last but not least, we chain them to the wall and let the die slowly for all other crewmembers to see, as a reminder for others who might feel inclined to follow the same path."

"Sounds about right," Killer affirmed moving to sever six more digits to the one he already removed. "Do you want to grab the screws for me?"

"Of course," Kidd obliged only for Killer's intended victim spoke up.

"Someone else planned it; I'm just the middle man!" He blurted.

"Oh is that so," Kidd led on finding the screws and tossing them in the air playfully. "Do tell us whom we owe the pleasure of tracking down and killing soon."

"I got caught a week back by an enemy crew," the bleeding man divulged, "they said if I helped them set you and Bonney up he'd let me go." Seeing Kidd's very unimpressed expression he man added, "I had no choice, he had my family! He was going to kill them." The man exclaimed pointedly.

"Who is he?" Killer roared through his mask long, blonde, messy hair seeming to rage alongside him.

"Joker," the man choked out.

The room went silent and Kidd cracked his neck. Joker was an infamous name in the underworld. Very few had knowledge of who the man really was and those people that did were very hard to find. Kidd sighed.

"What do you want me to do Captain?" Killer asked and nodded his head toward the man.

"Kill him," Kidd shrugged, "But make it quick, he did give us information after all."

"What?" The man asked startled.

"Don't worry," Kidd said solemnly, "You're family will be taken care of; they'll continue to get your cut of the profit." Kidd then left the room, deciding against staying and listening to the man beg for his life. He'd leave Killer to his job.

…

"You're too kind for your own good," Law said with his arms wrapped around Sanji who was busy cooking. "You just find some guy with swords and major wounds on the street and let him into your house?" Law continued mockingly, "Come right in sir would you like to steal from me go right ahead. Want to kill me, no problem what so ever."

"Che," Sanji rolled his eyes, "He hasn't done anything. And, even if he did I can protect myself just fine on my own. I'm not weak Law." He insisted.

"I know," Law conceded as he nuzzled into Sanji's back. "I don't want to lose you though."

"You're not going to lose me." Sanji comforted.

"Ney, Sanji-ya, do you ever regret saving me?" Law worried, "I'm always relying on you, I suffocate you, don't I?"

"No, you're my best friend," Sanji assured, "I wouldn't be me if I hadn't met you and I've never regretted having you in my life. You're very important to me."

"You're so cheesy," Law giggled.

"Shut up," Sanji growled pushing Law off of him.

"Aww don't be that way, Sanji-ya." Law jeered when a plate of food was shoved in his face.

"Shut up and eat." Sanji repeated.

Law smiled and accepted the plate of food as the two returned to the living room. Zoro looked up from his relaxed position on the couch with an unhappy expression. He didn't care for how close the two men were or the look Law was giving him. Sanji took a seat on the previously vacant loveseat and Law paused for a second and Zoro frowned as a mischievous grin crossed the doctor's face. Law then walked over to the loveseat and proceeded to lie across Sanji's lap to stretch across the whole loveseat. He then ate as if everything was normal.

"Really," Sanji frowned.

"What?" Law asked innocently, "I just thought that your houseguest should know how things work. I'm the only one who gets to be close to you unless okayed with me." Law says curling more into Sanji as he eats as if to demonstrate his point.

"Oi, don't talk about me like I belong to you." Sanji protested,"I'm in the room for Pete's sake."

"I see," Zoro says, "I'll just have to wait till you're not around then."

"What the fuck, you damn Marimo!" Sanji yelled.

"Then I'll just have to slit you're throat." Law sneered with a smile.

"Like to see you try eye-shadow," Zoro challenged.

"For fuck's sake-" Sanji groaned.

"Their dark circles!" Law defended, "And it sucks to be you because Sanji-ya doesn't like tools like you, asshole!"

"Oh, he seemed to like me just fine earlier." Zoro commented.

"Stupid Marimo!" Sanji shouted.

"I'll kill you," Law seethed.

"That's it!" Sanji yelled causing both of the other two to turn their attention to him, as he was red with anger and embarrassment. Sanji stood picking Law up with him, causing Law to set his finished meal plate to the side and cling to Sanji's neck, so as not to be dropped."

"What are," Law started only to be interrupted.

"If you're going to act like children, then you'll be treated like children." Sanji said before carrying Law to the bedroom and tossing him inside, adding "And bad kid's go to sleep early," before slamming the door closed.

"Not fair," Law whined but stayed in the room, knowing it was better than angering his host any further. Plus he was tired and Sanji's bed was soft.

Sanji returned to the living room to find a laughing Zoro, whom he then glared at dangerously. Sanji pulled out a smoke and lit it holding it delicately between his teeth. He took a long drag before walking over to the closet and removing Zoro's swords from it. He set them down harshly on the coffee table, making Zoro growl at him for his mistreatment of them. Their eyes met giving Zoro insight into just how pissed off the cook was; horrendously pissed off.

"Get out of my house." He said simply.

"Oh so now you want me to leave," Zoro scoffed, "because I insulted your boyfriend? You didn't seem too worried about him while we were making out."

"No," Sanji hissed, "because you insulted my friend. I don't give a damn you are or who society says you are, or who it says I am. But you won't insult my friends, or talk about me like that within the confines of my own house."

"He fucking started it shit-cook!" Zoro exclaimed angrily.

Yeah he did," Sanji admitted, "and I'm ending it."

Zoro snorted rising from the couch and tucking his swords back onto his waist. He headed to the door and the cook followed him, seeing him out. Zoro opened the door and stepped outside before speaking up again.

"If you ever get tired of being followed around but your guard dog, my friends and I hang out at a place call the Going Merry Bar in the business district, the south district, shit-cook." Zoro offered.

"In your dreams moss-head," Sanji responded, "don't get caught on your way back." With that Sanji shut his door and Zoro headed back, or started to before going the wrong way.

…

_**Hey everyone. ;) so I released this chapter a lot faster than the last one and that's because the reviews I got for chapter 3 really inspired me. so I got an idea. You guys want chapters faster and your reviews make me write faster so I thought if I get 6 new reviews for this chapter I will release chapter 5 with a week's time. If I fail to meet that deadline I will put at least a make-out scene in the next chapter. I would say that's fair. If you all think this is stupid just let me know and I'll forget about it as a stupid idea and just keep releasing chapters at random. anyway thanks for all the reviews as I said they really encourage me. **_

_**Sincerely,**_

_** LPC**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Hey everyone! Thank you for all the reviews. As promised I completed the within 7 days; therefore, unfortunately there is no make-out scene in this chapter. I have a good feeling that one will be coming soon though. I got an idea that you guys will like but I can't tell you or it would ruin the surprise and thus the fun. I'm very sorry for the lack of making-out in this chapter it just didn't fit... I'm sorry. **_

Marco and Ace moved at an easy pace through the districts making their way from the Business Caste's district of the South to the East district of the untouchables, one of the two districts of the lowest caste. The atmosphere was relaxed as they walked side by side.

"Sorry about my brothers; they can get a bit weird sometimes." Marco apologized embarrassed.

"No that's fine," Ace said, "people tend to expect that from people like me." Ace touched his iron collar subconsciously, but when he was caught by Marco's gaze he tore his hand away from it.

"They shouldn't." Marco stated bluntly, "Oyaji would be disappointed. There are people in this world who believe that these pieces of metal mean nothing."

"True," Ace laughed, "My younger brother is one of those people." He looked down at his feet and explained. "He's not like me. Luffy, he has a silver collar with a blue stone. Our grandfather made sure that he was accepted to the military; even if Luffy hates it."

"Luffy sounds like a good brother," Marco affirmed smiling.

"He is." Ace nodded. "He's rambunctious, and courageous, and loyal, and too good to have a brother like me." Ace's eyes turned sad and solemn and Marco caught the grief and pain hiding behind Ace's happy façade. "Grandpa, he doesn't want me to be anywhere near Luffy. He's thinks I'll corrupt him; that I'll pull him down to my level, that I'll hurt him. So I can't see him a whole lot."

Ace's eyes start to produce tears but he holds them back; the sight made Marco's heart ache. Marco reached out and took the younger man in his arms, comforting him as he would one of his younger siblings. Ace tensed for a moment not knowing what to expect but then let himself relax. Marco released him and ruffled his hair.

"There's nothing wrong with you." Marco spoke softly, "You're not a disease. You're a human. You won't hurt or infect or corrupt anyone. You're brother knows that."

"I guess," Ace blushed.

"I know." Marco assured. They both laughed. But, another voice broke in; a voice that Ace knew all too well. A voice that made him flinch and shiver. Beside him Marco tensed his muscles and ground his teeth as Marshall D. Teach approached them laughing.

"Well, what do you know; I was just looking for you, Ace." Blackbeard remarked. "It's not like you to come in late. You know the consequences for that," Ace hung his head and crossed his arms defeated, "And how interesting that you'd bring my old friend Marco back with you, interesting indeed. So, how are my old comrades, Marco, is Thatch still hanging on?" Blackbeard asked a loaded question.

Marco's face remained calm, as he controlled the rage flowing through his veins with a practiced ease, schooling his muscles to relax. "He's fully recovered, no thanks to you." He said simply, as if it didn't matter, with a bored expression.

"So you still hold a grudge, ey?" Blackbeard chuckled.

Marco smiled like a cat that ate a canary. "Would you like to find out how much of a grudge I hold?"

"I'm not so stupid as to think I could challenge you face to face." Blackbeard laughed. "But, I will warn you; those powers of yours won't protect you forever. And without you, everything will fall apart, even if the old man is still alive."

"I'll remember that." Marco said with a confident smirk. "But you'd do well to remember something also; as a family; we protect our own and if you hurt one of us, the rest of us will rise up to destroy you."

"Challenge accepted," Blackbeard sneered. "Come Ace; let's get back."

Blackbeard waved Ace to his side and Ace complied. Ace couldn't help spare Marco a guilty and apologetic glace as he moved away from the blonde toward Teach. Marco's eyes softened as they caught Ace's then hardened as he directed them back at Teach. Marco didn't like what was happening, but he understood it. Ace didn't understand how but it was obvious that the two other men had known each other and they were not on good terms. Ace could only guess why. Blackbeard grabbed Ace's wrist in a vice like grip and pulled him away from the other man. Marco watched as they turned a corner and started to head back towards home as his thoughts ran wild. He would need to talk to Oyaji soon and discuss tonight's occurrences.

Black beard waited until they were a block's distance from where they left Marco to speak again. "Ace," He started, "do you know who that was who was accompanying you?"

"Um, Marco?" Ace answered confused.

"So, you really have no clue." Blackbeard concluded. "That was Marco the Phoenix, one of the most well known pirates in this town. He's Whitebeard's right hand man."

"What?" Ace gasped. "He's Whitebeard's first mate? He didn't seem that intimidating."

"That's because he's so controlled." Teach surmised. "But if you get on his bad side, you'll see why so many people respect and admire him. He's strong and damn near immortal." Blackbeard paused, "Ney, Ace how would you like a chance to prove yourself?"

"What do you mean?" Ace inquired tiredly, knowing whatever Teach was thinking was most likely not good.

"I was just thinking," Blackbeard suggested, "If you could prove yourself to me, maybe I could make you into a true member of my crew, instead of some cheap whore that has to sell himself to stay alive."

Ace's eyes became glued to the street with shame as he heard Blackbeard's description of him. He was ashamed of what he was, even if he knew he'd had no choice. He would rather die than have Luffy figure out what he was doing to make a living. But what else could he do? He was worthless, wasn't he?

"How?" Ace asked softly knowing that Blackbeard's offer would be horrible, something that would make him even less human, but still hoping it was better than what he was living with currently.

"Marco seems fond of you." Blackbeard stated and Ace frowned. "Why don't you get a bit closer to him?"

"What are you talking about?" Ace questioned.

"Seduce him," Blackbeard revealed. "Make him fall in love with you. It shouldn't be hard for you. All you have to do is get close enough to him for him to tell you all his weaknesses. For him to trust you completely, then kill him."

"I can't," Ace stuttered, "I can't kill him. He hasn't done anything to me."

"Think about it Ace," Blackbeard tempted, "You wouldn't be worthless anymore, you wouldn't be touched and used by perverts every night who think of you as nothing more than their toy, you could live how you want to."

Ace paused afraid to give into what was obviously a deal with the devil. Could he really take the life of an innocent man just to make his own life better? After that same man had been kind and none judging of him?

"You could finally stand up to your grandfather with our crew behind you. You'd be able to see your brother as you wish." Blackbeard pushed.

Ace imagined it, being able to be close to Luffy without their grandfather's interference and sold his soul. "I'll do it."

"Good," Blackbeard chuckled.

…

The morning sunlight streaming through the window of his bedroom roused Sanji from his tumultuous sleep. He dreamt of that place, of the pain in his ribs and twisted leg, of the iron taste of his own blood in his mouth. He dreamt of the fire that singed his skin and the smoke that made it impossible for him to breathe. He watched the back of someone he once trusted retreat; leaving him to die. He awoke sweating, but rolled his eyes feeling the weight of another person lying atop him.

Law lay snuggled as close to Sanji as it seemed to possibly get. Law's head rested on his chest just beneath his neck and his breath teased over Sanji's bare skin. Law's arms wrapped themselves around Sanji's midsection in a completely clingy manner. One of Law's legs had strewn itself between Sanji's two. Law stirred nuzzling into Sanji even more, cuddling like a kitten.

It seemed ironic to Sanji that, since he had a California King size bed, Law would, instead of sleeping on his side, get as close to him as he could. Even though, he had become accustomed to that over the years of their friendship. When they had first met and Law had moved into Sanji's home, Sanji had given Law a room of his own. It hadn't been a good idea as Sanji was awoken on a nightly basis by a screaming and inconsolable Law. It was clear that after a few weeks that Law was incapable of sleeping alone without experiencing night terrors that would leave him screaming until his voice was hoarse.

Sanji couldn't blame him, after what the other boy had been though; some of which he'd still not divulged to Sanji at the time. So, when one night about a month after Law and Sanji had been living together, Law came to Sanji's bedroom exhausted and teary-eyed; Sanji immediately caved. Since then Law had taken to sleeping cuddled close to Sanji like a koala on a tree branch. Sanji had been annoyed with the closeness at first, but seeing as it eliminated the night terrors completely; he eventually got use to it. After all, Law was adorable when he was asleep.

Sanji was going to let the sleeping insomniac lie, when the surgeon blinked awake unhappily and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Law looked up at Sanji and smiled, still staying where he was, as he didn't feel like moving yet. Sanji sighed knowing that Law would put up quite a fight if he didn't make his next move carefully. So, Sanji let his hand card through Laws short black hair let himself relax as Law traced circles on his inactive arm and hand. He let the minutes pass and when Law started to frown, he knew that he'd won. Law was bored. Law couldn't stand being bored.

"Do you want to eat?" Sanji asked nonchalantly keeping up the motions of running his fingers through his friend's hair.

"I guess," Law said moving to get up slowly. Sanji did as well when he saw Law instantly become alert, and frowned. "Now that the unwelcome visitor is gone, I can tell you all about the insane hot guy that came into the clinic yesterday." Law smiled excitedly.

Sanji groaned, "Do you really have to?"

"Yes," Law asserted, "You always complain because you lean more towards women, but after I put up with that guy last night you have no right to refused to listen to me."

"Don't bring that up." Sanji grumbled and glared at Law.

"Fine," Law conceded, "but you're still listening to me." Law followed Sanji to the kitchen while continuing to talk. "So, I was preparing for the worst few hours of my life when Smoker called me over and he had this red-haired guy in sea-stone handcuffs."

"Really, Law, a guy in handcuffs," Sanji said unimpressed.

"Yes and he has red hair," Law restated sarcastically causing Sanji to snort and roll his eyes. "And this guy was built; he had muscles on top of muscles and this creepy, animalistic smile. He was hot. But now I have to find out how to find him again."

"Can't you just go to prison and visit him?" Sanji jeered.

"He escaped," Law beamed. Sanji gave Law an even more unimpressed look. "I didn't help if that's what you're thinking. He threw me into a rolling cabinet and jumped out a window."

"So let me get this straight," Sanji quipped, "the man you think is hot is a criminal, who's also violent and reckless."

"That's correct." Law smiled.

"You have terrible tastes in men." Sanji said and they both laughed.

…

After Killer disposing of the leak's dead body, expertly lock-picking Kidd's handcuffs off, and a good night's sleep; Kidd awoke just as disgruntled as he was the previous night. Dealing with his fellow crewmates was not helping anything either. Everyone was so happy that he was okay; everyone was talking about how happy they were that the traitor was gone. It annoyed him to no end. They should be pissed. Joker an infamous bastard was trying to destroy them. Kidd was determined to take him down first. Problem was how do you find someone that no one knows anything about?

"Captain," Killer said disturbing the madhouse of angry and violent thoughts running amok through Kidd's head. "Someone's here who wants to talk to you. She says that she has information on Joker."

Kidd quickly followed Killer into the entrance way of the hotel. There was a very scandalous woman wearing a fairly revealing maid's outfit and crying. Kidd frowned. This woman looked like trouble, annoying trouble, the kind of annoying trouble that talked endlessly and gave very little useful information. Kidd was not pleased.

"I'm Baby Five," The woman said teary eyed as if her name explained everything.

"And you have information about Joker, which you want to tell us." Kidd remarked trying to get the woman out of his presence as quickly as possible.

"You ungrateful heathen, you see a crying woman and all you care about is the information!" The woman raged. "I just lost my fiancé!'

"And that matters because," Kidd asked.

"What he means to say," Killer interrupted, "is that the loss of you fiancé is a horrible tragedy and that he's assuming it has something to do with the reason you've come to us while obviously upset with information about a man we just happen to be looking for."

"Oh, you're so smart, will you marry me?" The woman asks randomly.

"I do not believe that would be the best course of action at the moment, but thank you for the offer." Killer responded nonchalantly. "So would you like to tell us about the reason you're here?"

"Joker killed my fiancé, he always does." Baby Five pouted. "So, since I knew he was trying to take you out, I decided I would help."

"So you want us to take him out for you?" Killer queried.

"Yes, but I can't tell you where he is." Baby Five elaborated.

"Why the hell not?" Kidd yelled.

"Because I'm not an idiot," Baby Five retorted, "I'm in Joker's crew and I don't feel like dying. What I will give you is a way to find him, but you have to do the work yourselves. All I'm going to give you is a starting point."

"Wonderful," Kidd remarked sarcastically.

"Do you want the information or not?" She asked.

"Captain, behave, this is the only lead we have, although I don't think I have to remind you of that." Killer reminded.

"Yes, we want the information." Kidd said begrudgingly.

Baby five smiled and pulled a manila file out of her purse and handed it cheerfully to Kidd. Then without another word she left and closed the door behind her. She left both of the men staring at the door with mixes of confusion and disgust.

"That woman was very strange." Killer stated.

"No," Kidd disagreed, "That woman was psychotic. Do you think that it's a set up? For her to arrive with information we just started looking for yesterday is very suspicious."

"I would be very surprised if it wasn't." Killer replied. "What do you want to do Captain?"

"We find Joker, and we can repay that bitch for setting us up when we do." Kidd theorized.

"Ruthless as always," Killer commented.

"You're damn right," Kidd said opening the file.

What was inside instantly ruined his good mood. Inside was a complete history on a rival pirate gang. The heart pirates. Full evaluations and descriptions were complied of every member ranging from strange twins to a polar bear wearing an orange jumpsuit. But that wasn't what perturbed him. It was the captain of the heart pirate's photograph. A photo of the creepy raccoon doctor he'd met in the clinic was lying right on top of the information in the file.

"Damnit." Kidd groaned.

"What," Killer asked.

"It's the creepy doctor I met at the clinic yesterday." Kidd grumbled. "He's their fucking captain."

…

It was a lucky day for Zoro or so it seemed since he made it back to the business district at a time of day during which he knew only Franky and Robin would be in the Going Merry. He needed to talk to Robin since she was always informed about just about any subject that ever came up, and Franky wasn't one to gossip. Zoro entered the bar through the back exit. The law stated that any untouchables had to enter through an alternate entrance than the rest of the public. It wasn't that Zoro cared about the law, nor did Kaya, Ussop's girlfriend, who owned the bar. But, it was now broad daylight and plenty of people were on the street. Zoro didn't want to deal with unnecessary situations today caused by pompous idiots which the public was mainly composed of.

"Yo, Zoro-bro," Franky greeted as Zoro entered the establishment and Zoro nodded in response but kept moving until he say the long raven haired woman who was his confidant.

"Ah, Swordsman-san, it's good to see you well, you had everyone quite worried." Robin said smiling.

"Yeah," He uttered in response taking a seat across from her. He didn't exactly know where to start.

"I cannot read minds, Swordsman-san." Robin reminded.

"Do you know about anyone with the name Krieg?" Zoro asked directly.

"Krieg," Robin thought, "Like Don Krieg, the captain of the Krieg pirates? How have you heard of him?"

"Heard the name in a conversation," Zoro answered shortly.

"A conversation that you heard last night," Robin wondered, "Where were you last night after the fight? And who patched you up afterward?" When Zoro didn't respond she added, "I think it's fair if I answer your questions and you answer mine."

"Fine," Zoro sighed, "I ended up in Mariejoise and met a guy who patched up my wounds."

"A celestial dragon?" Robin inquired and Zoro nodded slightly. "Oh my, I'm guessing then that he's the one who was in the news a few months ago. Krieg crew allegedly attacked, poisoned, and left a celestial dragon in a burning building to die. The man lived, though he was injured. So, who is this Celestial Dragon that you met last night? Didn't he report you or anything?"

"No," Zoro stated and when Robin raised an eyebrow he added, "He took me to his house, patched me up, and when the guards showed up, he tricked them into leaving." A blush crossed his face with the last part of the comment as the last night's events replayed in his mind.

"I wonder how he managed that." Robin commented. "So, what was this Celestial Dragon like?"

"Blonde, tall, thin, blue eyes." Zoro replied frowning, he knew that Robin was figuring out everything he was thinking at the moment. It was her thing; he was only happy to know that she wouldn't share any of that information. "He smokes, keeps one of his eyes covered, he's exceedingly loyal to his friends, even if they're assholes, confident, and he can cook. Luffy would like him."

"And he didn't care about your collar or his own for that matter?" She asked.

"He seemed to think that they didn't mean anything." Zoro admitted.

"So you want to sleep with him?" Robin suggested.

"What?" Zoro asked flabbergasted. He always managed to underestimate Robin's deductive reasoning.

"You find this man attractive." Robin claimed.

"Why would you," Zoro began to argue.

"Most of the things you mentioned first were physical aspects of the man not character traits; which are normally all you care about. Therefore since you not only mentioned his physical appearance but mentioned it before what you normally care more about, shows that you have some interest in him."

Zoro frowned and glared at Robin. He really hated that she could read him so easily. "He's also an annoying, over emotional, foul mouthed idiot with an even more annoying clingy best friend."

"So you do like him." Robin said. "Otherwise you wouldn't feel the need to list bad things about him in an attempt to persuade me otherwise. Or mention his overly clingy best friend whom you very obviously don't like because of the aforementioned clinginess."

…

Sanji was expertly dicing onions at the Baratie; the only problem with the picture was that he was dicing them without looking at them. No, for some certain reason Sanji found that the wall in front of him was extraordinarily interesting today. The only problem with that was that it was the same wall he'd been staring at since he came in four hours ago. And that wall had been there since Sanji met Zeff and started working at the Baratie when he was six. The distraction had a lot to do with a green haired Neanderthal. Sanji didn't want to admit it, but he knew.

"You're distracted, bean-sprout." Zeff said appearing behind Sanji and swiftly kicking him in the shin with his wooden leg.

"Ow, God damn it you old geezer," Sanji cursed, "I'm fine. I haven't made any mistakes or anything."

"That's no excuse!" Zeff retorted again with a kick. "I won't have some stupid sprout messing up fine cooking in my restaurant because he's not focused!"

"I'm not screwing it up!" Sanji yelled in response.

"Not yet." Zeff scoffed.

"I'm not going to screw up either I'm fine." Sanji protested.

"You're right you're not because you're going home." Sanji opened his mouth to protest when Zeff added. "Now, go deal witht that creepy molester you call a best friend, or the woman you're having sex with, or not, that's got you so distracted. Then come back and get your ass to work."

"Stupid old man," Sanji grumbled making his way to the exit and pulling out a smoke. He sighed and turned around to ask, "Hey, Patty, Carne, do you know where the Going Merry Bar is?"

…

_**I would like you all to know to feel free to send me requests and ideas and theories and anything. Also keep the reviews coming because they are what keep me updating quickly. Dear Anonymous-Person I hope you are happy with what I did with your body pillow request between Sanji and Law. Also I'd like to thank all of you for reviewing; I was going to list everyone's names but I wasn't sure you'd all want me to do that and well laziness. So yeah I'm up for anything so let me know if you want anything included and I'll try to include it. The plot finally arrived in this chapter so I'm very sorry for the lack of making out. **_

_**-LPC **_


	6. Chapter 6

Marco couldn't help but run his fingers through his leaf shaped hair. It had not been easily to organize all the reports, especially with his brothers distracting him all night. Though that wasn't the only distraction his was dealt last night. Teach's reappearance and Ace's involvement with said evil man bothered him a great deal. His astute mind still tried to wrap all of it up into an understandable context of sorts.

It seemed that his brothers' first assumption about Ace was more correct than he wanted it to be. If Ace was working for Teach it was fairly likely that Ace was in fact a prostitute. Marco sighed; life was unfair, for a kid like Ace to have to go to those lengths to survive. The facts angered Marco to no end. Ace himself had seemed like an innocent kid. The question was then, how did Ace get mixed up with Teach.

Then there was the fact that Teach had reappeared at all. Macro had thought that Teach was lying low after the crime he'd nearly gotten away with. It had been two years since Teach had nearly killed Thatch and he would have succeeded if Marco and Whitebeard hadn't gotten suspicious.

At that time Thatch had found a very interesting devil's fruit; one Teach had been searching for, for a long time. Teach started to act weird. Marco and Whitebeard noticed when Teach started to withdrawn from the rest of the crew, and opted to nearly stalk Thatch. Whitebeard and Marco had agreed that it wasn't wise to leave Thatch alone and away from other members for an extended period of time. And yet, they still had not wanted to alarm the rest of the crew; and thereby alerting Teach to the fact that they suspected him. Marco regretted not taking a more direct approach. Their delay in taking action against Teach had nearly cost Thatch his life.

It had been Izou's birthday party; and they haven't been paying near enough attention to Teach and Thatch's locations. Whitebeard as always was heading up the festivities and drinking more than his nurses would have liked. Meanwhile with all of the family present, Marco had his hands full keeping everyone in line and taking care of those who'd surpassed their alcohol limits. It was his job as Whitebeard's first son to do these things. It was also his job to keep everyone safe.

Marco noticed Thatch and Teach were gone only when the rest of the family gathered around to watch Izou open his presents. Thatch was always the first to give presents after Whitebeard, so when the pompadour hairstyle man had not showed, a shiver of dread had ran down Marco's spine. He left the room in a sprint, making everyone eye instantly follow him. Whitebeard's eyes widened when he realized why Marco had left in hurry and the two people that were missing from the celebration. The rest of the crew was stunned and confused before Whitebeard had told the division commanders to follow and help him.

Marco started running through the building kicking down doors as he went. He knew that they'd most likely not left the building. Thatch may not be able to see though people as much as Whitebeard or Marco, but he still wouldn't have agreed to leave the building during one of his brothers birthday parties. He cared too much about the family to do that. Marco headed toward the kitchen, where Thatch spent most of his time since he was a cook. He was still sure to check every room on the way there; since one can never be too cautious.

He reached the kitchen and opened the locked door with a well placed and powerful kick. What he saw there made the normally controlled man see red and grind his teeth. Teach stood over Thatch who was bleeding out through multiple stab wounds, while holding the half eaten yami yami no mi. It didn't even take a second for Marco to change forms from human to phoenix. Teach tried to finish eating the fruit while Marco latched on to him on the shoulders digging his talons deeply into the flesh, muscle, and even bones there.

Behind him, he heard Izou scream, "Thatch," before running to their injured brother side, even though he was already unconsciousness from blood loss.

Teach laughed through a grimace while still struggling to stuff the rest of the devil's fruit in his face. Marco growled through his phoenix from and used his strong fiery wings to propel Blackbeard back away from the others and toward the large second story window. Blackbeard struggled to break free of his grasp and Marco could see darkness beginning to roll of the other man's figure. With one more push of his wings against the air he broke through the window and released Teach throwing him down to the empty street below. He was about to pursue the man when he saw Teach get up, injured but not severely, and start to run, but he heard Izou call for him.

"Marco help me," Izou yelled, "Thatch is dying!"

Marco shifted back to his human form and went to assist Izou, he could hunt down Teach later, he'd thought. Thatch surviving was what top priority was at the moment. They'd rushed to get Thatch medical attention and after being out for two weeks he woke and started to recover. But, Teach had gotten away, and they'd only now found him by chance. Marco felt the guilt of the past heavily as he knocked on Whitebeard's door.

"Come in, Marco," Whitebeard answered knowing it was his first son who was knocking by the sound of Marco fist hitting the door and his light steps that had approached.

Marco entered to see Whitebeard's expectant face. Whitebeard had a way of knowing when one of his sons or daughters was troubled and I was quite obvious from him that Marco was. Marco sighed a ran his hand through his hair once more before taking a seat on one of the arms on Whitebeard throne-like chair. It was his usual perch when he was talking about thing that bothered him to Whitebeard. He'd not often been in this seat, at least not recently.

"Teach is back." He stated simply. "I saw him last night. And he's still after us."

"That doesn't surprise me." Whitebeard laughed. "He's a vindictive man. How did you manage to find him?"

"It was pure coincidence; I met a young man on the way home yesterday. Long story short; he works for Teach. That's how I ran into him, when I was walking the kid back to the East District." Marco explained staring off into space.

"The East District; so that's where the bastard has been hiding." Whitebeard paused and glanced at Marco; there was something about his son's eyes that spoke of trouble. "How exactly is the kid you met involved with Teach?"

"Through work," Marco said not wanting to elaborate, but when Whitebeard raised a brow he continued, "I think Teach is his boss of sorts and not a good kind either. I think Ace is a prostitute under Blackbeard's control."

"So, Ace is the boy's name." Whitebeard nodded. "And Blackbeard's taking advantage of the poverty stricken lowest caste. I wouldn't doubt that he's already assembled a crew. And you met him face to face?"

"Yeah," Marco answered.

"Marco," Whitebeard warned, "Blackbeard will use the boy against you if you let him. He knows you too well. You're strong; the strongest of my children and you are a very moral man. You do not allow others to be hurt in front of your eyes and that can and will be used to hurt you. Now that you've seen what's happening; I know you want to help this boy named Ace. Are you willing to risk your own life for a stranger?"

"He's not a bad person." Marco said frowning. "He's hurt and troubled and yeah Teach is going to use him against me, but if you met him; I think you would want to protect him as well. He's innocent. He just needs help; being under Teach's authority isn't going to help the kid."

"I agree," Whitebeard said, "and I know that you're going to do something about it." Whitebeard paused, "I'll support you but I want you to use caution. We can't afford to lose you, Marco."

"Don't worry," Marco smirked, "I'll be careful."

…

Law; after a morning of mind numbing clinic duty to make up for leaving early yesterday, decided that he'd go out for lunch. It was uncommon because Law ran on caffeine, but he decided to stop by his favorite coffee shop for coffee and muffins. After receiving the goods from the barista he took a table by the window. Drinking his coffee he relaxed and stretched his legs. It was summer and the sun shined brightly through the window; it made Law squint. He looked out the window at the bustling city. The people moved around quite like ants or so Law thought, but they were worse than that. The collars around people's neck made people treat each other based on nothing other than their assigned place.

The collars told of the people's place, of how to treat them, and of what they deserve either good or bad. Each person born was assigned a collar at the age of eight, after two years of testing. The only exception to that rule was the mighty Celestial Dragons who received their golden collars adorned in stones when they were born. The collars received at birth marked them as above the law; any law. That's why they could do whatever they pleased from making slaves out of the general public or to murder anyone they pleased on a whim.

Everyone else was assigned their collars. It was meant to be a fair process, but all too often children that came from low caste parents were stuck in that caste as well; same with the high caste citizens. If you were born to high caste parents you were likely to get that caste no matter how terribly you tested. Next came people who tested or were born highest wore golden collars without any stone. Those were the well educated caste; people who became lawyers, doctors, surgeons, and law makers. They had privileges that extended above the law as well although not as highly as the Celestial Dragons. These were also the only ones who had access to knowledge and education, everyone else was less educated because society didn't want the lesser beings in society to think they were entitled to anything and therefore, why educate them?

Next were the military; they wore silver collars with stones. Many people were assigned this because they were easy to manipulate and strong; people who wouldn't question the government's unfair laws and yet would love to have authority. Still, even this caste played by rules of birth.

Then came the entrepreneur class; those that have the drive and the innovation to start and manage business that could uphold the society's economy; people who own restaurants, stores, and places for entertainment. These were the more normal inhabitants of the country. They had to abide by the often cruel and unusual laws, but still had normal rights and a means to make a good amount of money.

Next to the lowest caste were the people with bronze collars; these people made up most of the work force. The ones with stones were somewhat skilled workers such as mechanics, or technicians, which had to learn specific skills to work. The ones that didn't have stones were the people who made up the unskilled labor force such as factory workers. These people were above the poverty line but not extremely well off. Also they were often subject to a sort of discrimination from the upper classes.

Finally was the lowest caste that wore iron collars were the untouchables. There were many ways one could end up in the lowest caste. For one, children born from the lower classes who showed no potential were often thrown away to this caste. The government also liked to weed out individuals who were likely to rebel into the caste to keep any rebellions from starting; this also applies to anyone that committed a crime. When one commits a crime their collar is changed to that of the lowest caste as well, though only the lower castes were even under the law. That is the only change of caste that is allowed by the society.

It disgusted Law that a society of arguably the wisest species of being currently existing could survive on such an immoral system. Law sat and watched the people pass by. He watched the people and guessed at the sins they'd committed in their life. For the gold collars; they'd probably gotten away with any number of things, maybe even murder. They were able to do nearly everything they wanted, other than killing someone of an equal or higher caste. But as Law watched, someone else watched him.

Kidd stood in an alley not far away, but concealed in the shadows. He watched the creepy doctor with a bored expression. Even given that the doctor was extremely strange, it didn't seem like to Kidd that he had any involvement with the underground boss he was currently pursuing. The man was just sitting there drinking coffee and eating muffins like the most normal person alive. For a second he swore the doctor's gaze landed on him and he retreated further into the shadows to keep for being discovered.

Law was an observant man thought and when he thought he'd seen a flash of red, a cat-like grin appeared on his lips. Maybe he wouldn't have to hunt down the attractive man from the clinic after all. And maybe he could have a little fun with his new stalker.

He got up from his seat, threw away his trash and started to walk back towards the hospital. As he walked he swayed his hips in a sensual way. He figured if someone was watching they might as well have something to watch. It was still warm like summer outside. Law used that as an excuse to slowly strip himself of his favorite sweatshirt; slowly as he let the tight fitted tee shirt underneath slide upward revealing a little of his toned stomach and his feminine waistline. He smiled wondering if the red head following him was enjoying himself.

What the hell? That question was what ran through Kidd's mind as he watched Law's actions with furrowed brows. What did the creepy doctor think he was doing? He was strip teasing while walking down a crowded street! And Kidd saw the other members of the public reacting to the actions Law was performing. Women and men alike were gawking at the raven haired olive skinned man who apparently had the perfect body. Even Kidd couldn't stop his mouth from watering at the sight. It almost made him want catch up to the man and run his hand up underneath that thin black tea and then down those tantalizing hips.

Kidd shook himself out of those thoughts. When did he start thinking about men that way? Not to say that the doctor was unattractive, because that was not true at all. But Kidd had never thought about men as appealing. All his life, he'd been interested in women and only women. Why, then, did he want to push the creepy doctor against a wall, strip him of his remaining clothes, and make the man moan against him? The creepy doctor was an anomaly. Kidd would decide what to about that after he used the doctor to find Joker.

Law reached the hospital and put on his lab coat with a sigh; he decided it was too hot to put his sweatshirt back on. Another sigh followed as he realized that his sexy red head stalker would not be able to come inside the hospital without being recognized and possibly reported to the police. Law wondered then where would his stalker be while he was inside. Suspecting the man was not far he looked out the window of his office and spotted a bit of the man's strangely colored pants in an area of dense shade. Law smiled fiendishly.

Like a child he ran through the hospital pushing past doctors and patients alike on his way to the cafeteria. Once there he slowed to a respectable pace so as not to appear as if he'd lost his mind. He waited in the line impatiently to buy three apples. He then proceeded to run back to his office. Thankfully, when he returned to his office Kidd had moved slightly more into the sunlight; giving Law a better view and therefore better aim.

Law opened his window; which was one of the very few that opened in the building. And tossed and apple up and down in his hand a few times. He then threw the apple out the window like a pitcher throws a baseball. Said apple then hit Kidd forcefully in the side of the head.

"What the fuck?" Kidd yelled surprised as Law ducked to hide out of sight in the window giggling like a school girl.

Law popped up quickly to throw another apple which was slightly less successful than the first since it hit Kidd in the shoulder. Kidd's head snapped in his direction and Law wasn't sure if he managed to duck in time. But he figured it out when Kidd caught the third apple he threw. Law was so caught up in pouting that he didn't notice Kidd had thrown the apple back at him until it hit him square in the middle of his forehead. It made him yelp in surprise. Kid threw another and Law was able to dodge it by stepping to the side swiftly. The managed to shut the window before the third was there and it hit the window before falling to the ground uselessly. Law stuck out his tongue childishly. He had to admit; this, whatever it was, was going to be fun.

…

It was about ten o' clock at night when the Going Merry bar started to become populated. The Strawhats were enjoying their time together by talking about the recent victory over the Buggy Pirates. The atmosphere was lively and refreshing. But Zoro was still irritated.

"You could have told us about Buggy's devil's fruit powers, Sea Witch." Zoro growled.

"How was I supposed to know that cutting him wouldn't work because of his power?" Nami replied angrily, "If I thought it was important I would have mentioned it."

"It was important!" Zoro exclaimed, "I got stabbed because I didn't know."

Robin leaned close enough to Zoro to whisper in his ear without anyone else hearing, "Are you sure that's what you're frustrated about?"

Zoro ground his teeth and hissed, "Yes."

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Ussop noticing their subtle whispering.

"Oh, nothing sniper-san," Robin waved her hand.

"What's happening?" Luffy inquired cheerfully.

"Nothing," Zoro said hastily.

"Aw but I'm the captain; you have to tell me." Luffy stated.

Zoro sighed and looked at Robin. She was about to explain when the door to the bar opening was signaled with a ting of a bell. Many patrons' eyes turned to the door including the Strawhat crew's. The air immediately became tense as the people who were present at the bar saw the man who had entered and the stone embellished golden that was around his neck.

This was the usual response the public had to Celestial Dragons, because they knew that if the Celestial Dragon wanted to do anything evil; they'd get away with it. Many people feared those who could destroy their lives by just saying a few words. Sanji's golden hair glowed in low light and he took a long drag of his cigarette before releasing the air in a nearly seductive manner and scanned the room with his eyes before finding a familiar head of oddly colored hair.

"Oh my," Robin breathed, "Is he the one?" Zoro nodded slightly and she added, "He is very handsome, Swordsman-san."

"You know him, Zoro?" Luffy asked confused.

"I met him last night." Zoro stated simply.

Sanji approached the Strawhat crew with a walk that was purely hypnotic in Zoro's opinion. He leaned on the bar beside Zoro and glance at the green haired man with his uncovered eye. Zoro couldn't help but notice how long the blonde's eyelashes were, or how interesting the color of his eyes was. He also didn't miss how the ends of Sanji's lips turned upward. Sanji turned his head to the side away from Zoro and put the mostly spent cigarette in an ash tray.

"May I have a scotch on the rocks with cranberry?" Sanji asked politely smiling at Franky.

"Yeah, coming right up," Franky replied frowning in confusion at Sanji. It was strange for a Celestial Dragon to come to the Going Merry. But it was even stranger for a Celestial Dragon to be polite and ask for something instead of command it.

"So, am I dreaming shit-cook?" Zoro inquired with a grin.

Sanji rolled his eyes with a scoff and shoved Zoro lightly. "Shut up, you stupid Marimo."

"Marimo," Robin asked with a giggle, "that's quite fitting."

"Don't say that!" Zoro yelled.

"And who might you be, my dear lovely lady?" Sanji asked taking Robin's hand and placing a kiss on it gently. Zoro frowned deeply at this while Robin smiled politely.

"Nico Robin is my name." She replies, "And you must be Cook-san."

"So the Marimo told you about me." Sanji said with a mocking grin in Zoro's direction. Zoro glared at him not amused.

"You're a cook!" Luffy blurted before hurling himself at Sanji effectively knocking the blonde off his feet and onto his butt. "Will you cook us meat?" Luffy asked near drooling wrapping his rubber arms around Sanji multiple times.

"That depends on if you let go of me or not," Sanji answered annoyed, as he brought up one of his legs to try to removed the rubber-man from him.

"Luffy leave that guy alone he can only be bad news." Nami stated looking displease with the whole situation. She'd been brought up being taught that rich people no matter how gentle they act only abuse and use people under them.

"If I'm upsetting you, Miss, I'll leave." Sanji offered. "Maybe I shouldn't have come here."

Zoro wanted to step in say something; but no matter what he came up to say in his head it managed to sound too idiotic to say aloud. He didn't want the cook to leave. Thankfully, he didn't have to say anything as Luffy spoke instead.

"No," He whined. "You can't leave, you just got here and you haven't cooked anything yet. I'm hungry. Stop being mean Nami. I'm the captain if I say he staying then he's staying."

"Captain?" Sanji asked perplexed.

"Yes, Cook-san, Luffy here is the Captain of the pirate crew we are all a part of." Robin explained causing Sanji to cock one of his eyebrows upwards at the raven-haired woman with the golden collar around her neck. Before he gave a doubtful look to the black haired teen wearing a Strawhat and a silver collar with a blue stone embedded in it. "He may not seem like much but Captain-san is very strong and reliable. He brought all of us together and therefore we are all a members of his crew. I'm the archeologist."

"Yo, I'm the shipwright." Announced Franky returning with Sanji's drink smiling lovingly at Robin while wondering what his girlfriend was planning. His bronze collar with a yellow stone was odd with his light blue hair.

"I am Ussop sniper extraordinaire, commander of a thousand men!" Ussop explained taking an valiant stance with one foot on his barstool and the other on the bar, with his sliver collar with a green stone standing out on his neck. Sanji gave Zoro a doubtful look with one eyebrow raised.

"He's also known for lying, sometimes terribly." Zoro added earning a chuckle from Sanji who was standing up and dusting himself off after Luffy had released him.

"That he is, yohoho" Brook laughed, silver collar loose around his boney neck, extending a skeletal hand which Sanji shook tentatively, "It's a pleasure to see you this evening, although I have no eyes, yohoho. I'm Brook; the crew's musician."

"I-I'm Chopper." Said a small furry figure attached to Zoro's leg just far enough outward for Sanji to see the gold collar around his neck.

"He's our doctor." Robin explained turning to Nami.

She sighed and toyed with her plain bronze collar, "Navigator."

"And, Swordsman-san whom you've already met is our swordsman, of course, as well as first mate." Robin finished.

"Yep," Luffy laughed hands behind his head, "And all we need now is a cook and our crew will be complete. So, join my crew!"

"Luffy!" Nami exclaimed and everyone's eyes turned toward Sanji and Luffy.

Sanji sighed, took a swig of his drink, lit a cigarette, and simply said, "No."

"What, why not?" Luffy nagged. "You're a cook and we need a cook! Join my crew."

"I have no intention of becoming a pirate." Sanji stated. "Why should I get involved in these stupid turf wars? They don't mean anything. So, one group of people beat up another group; it doesn't change anything. Everyone thinks that if they start a crew and take over the whole society that they can change the shitty system, but that's not how it works. Everyone thinks that if they become the "Pirate King" that they can change everything. That's not true.

Even the Pirate King won't be able to unite enough people to take out the government and its damn policies. And even if he could, you think destroying a society will fix everything then what will happen when there's no a law or authority. I agree the system is shit, but anarchy isn't exactly a picnic either." Sanji looked Luffy straight in the eye. "I won't get in the way if your dream is to become the Pirate King, but don't involve me in it."

"Don't give me that shit-cook." Zoro confronted him, causing many people in the crew to look at Zoro questioningly. "You want to changed society as much as the rest of us, but for some stupid reason you're too cowardly to try. Are you too weak to put up a fight?"

"What do you say, stupid Marimo?" Sanji ground out through his teeth.

"You're weak that's why you don't want-" Zoro started to before a powerful kick sent him off of his chair and across the wooden floor of the bar. This caused many of the Strawhat crew's jaws to drop or eyes to become wide. Robin only smiled knowingly while Luffy was ecstatic. Only Luffy had been able to see Sanji get to his feet and execute the flawless kick, while for everyone else it had happened too quickly to see. But, the others knew that it would take a lot of power to do what Sanji did to Zoro no less.

"So cool!" Luffy exclaimed eyes shining brightly.

"I am not weak." Sanji fumed crushing his cigarette under the toe of his shoe.

"Prove it," Zoro challenged with a smirk.

Goosebumps were already forming on his skin. Zoro had felt that kick. It was nothing to scoff at. Blondie was much stronger than his appearance let on. Zoro cracked his neck and drew his swords. He took on his normal fighting stance as many patrons decided that now would be a good time to leave. Sanji tensed and took a stance as well. From the stance Zoro could tell that the chef was skilled in fighting. His feet were shoulder width apart, his muscles were tense but relaxed enough to allow for agile movement, his eyes were focused on Zoro's shoulders and hips looking for any tells that would give away attacks.

Both men sprang into action, both wanting to have the first attack. Zoro performed a rightward slash which was blocked efficiently with the heel of Sanji's left shoe. Zoro frowned; he kept his blades very well maintained, therefore by all logical reasoning Sanji should have lost that foot. He didn't lose it though, which made the hair on the back of Zoro's neck stand up. Sanji couldn't help but smirk.

Sanji used his left leg to deflect Zoro's blades over his own head before swapping his standing legs to deliver another kick with his right leg. Zoro dodged swinging his swords back trying to swipe Sanji's legs out from under him. He used the blunt side to avoid cutting the cook's legs off. But he didn't need to worry, Sanji saw the attack coming. He leaned back; pulling his hands out of his pockets so that he could flip backwards over all three of Zoro's swords and catch himself with his hands, moving fluidly into a second flip to get out of Zoro's striking distance. He stood up straight again.

"That's it you are so joining my crew!" Luffy said throwing himself at Sanji again, but the blonde managed to keep upright this time. "You cook and you can fight evenly with Zoro! You're perfect."

"Didn't you hear me the first time? I'm not joining your crew!" Sanji yelled while everyone else in the Strawhat crew rolled their eyes knowing that once Luffy decided you were in the crew, then there was no getting out of it.

…

Outside Gin leaned against the wall of the Going Merry near the door having heard the whole exchange. He had hoped that Sanji had managed to make it out of that fire alive; it had been the whole reason Gin used Sanji's cell phone to send the text to Law. But, Krieg had found out that Sanji had survived. Now he was back to square one. His loyalty to Krieg meant that he had to do as ordered and track down the blonde, but he didn't want to kill him. He sighed and headed back to the Krieg Pirates hideout. He could go back empty handed tonight, but he knew that wouldn't be the end of it. People didn't just escape from Krieg.

_**Yay more plot and ugh no physical romance I know I'm sorry. Truthfully I'm making up this story as I go along at this point. I think it will take some time to get Marco and Ace to a point that I can write a romantic interaction between them. BTW sorry about the weird way of stating things... there are reasons behind it but I won't explain it; its embarrassing. I think Sanji and Zoro or Law and Kidd could have one soon, I guess if I see an opening you'll be the first to know... anyway thanks for all the support its what is keeping this thing going really. Otherwise I would've run out of ideas chapters ago. anyway I was wondering if you guys want me to publish the weird/funny notes I wrote to start this thing out the plot has changed a lot but if you want em i'll post em as an author's note.**_

_**-LPC**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**WARNING: this chapter contains somewhat graphic scene of what i consider sexual abuse so you have been warned. **_

Marco walked down a broken street in the decrepit East District as the sun hung low in the sky; the homeless and hungry watched him with wide eyes all focusing on the silver collar around his neck. Marco hated coming here. He hated seeing all the people that he couldn't help. A woman and two children sat huddled underneath a ratty old blanket. They looked weary, malnourished, and under-clothed. It made a bleak feeling settle over Marco's heart. He tried to remember the reason he came to the East District. He tried to remember the person he might be able to save; Ace.

He had dressed comfortably today; not in work clothes, but in his favorite purple jacket without a shirt to show off his tattoo; it was his pride, and his favorite kapris with the light blue sash belt with gold chains. He didn't want to make the in habitants more uneasy than what was strictly necessary. He sighed; he knew it was pointless to aimlessly wonder around hoping to find Ace. So he approached the woman and her two children.

"Good evening, yoi." He greeted squatting to get to eye level to the mother. "I was wondering if you could help me. I'm looking for someone and he lives around here, yoi." The woman didn't respond but seemed to be paying attention since she locked eyes with Marco. "His name is Ace. He's about twenty years old, has black hair, and doesn't seem to wear a shirt, yoi."

The woman narrowed her eyes in a glare and spat, "So you're one of those men. You think it's fun to take advantage of those kids that can't make an honest living. Paying them to service you in your bedroom because they can't earn money any other way is the same as rape! I'm not telling you a damn thing."

Marco understood why the woman would jump to conclusion, but still sighed in annoyance before taking his wallet out of his pocket and handing some money to the woman. "Get some food for you and the kids, yoi." He said before getting up and walking away.

"Go three streets down the take a left, go two more streets and you'll see a dead end alleyway on the left. You'll find him there." The woman called making him stop.

"It wasn't a bribe, yoi." Marco stated.

"I know," the woman responded.

Marco nodded before continuing on the path the woman mentioned. Marco followed the instructions to the tee but as he got closer to his destination he started to hear sounds that make him quicken his pace. He heard panting, moaning, and whimpers. He started to run, quietly but quickly, not wanting to think about the consequences of arriving too late. What he saw when he arrived sent him into a blind rage. Ace was forced against one wall of the alley pinned there by a larger man with light purple hair wearing a wrestling mask. Marco could barely contain the phoenix side of him that wanted nothing more than to murder the man and free Ace.

Ace noticed Marco's arrival in his peripheral vision and immediately turned his head so that he was looking in the opposite direction. A strong sense of shame filled his stomach as he wondered why Marco was here and what god hated him enough to make it so that Marco arrived right that moment. He didn't want Marco to see what was happening or what would happen next. But, he also knew that he couldn't push Burgess away seeing as he was a member of Blackbeard's crew and he'd already paid. He clenched his teeth and forced his body to relax. He only hoped that Marco would be disgusted enough to leave and never come back.

Ace could feel Burgess fumble with his belt and curse inwardly. Ace started to panic. He didn't want Marco to see this. He didn't want Marco to see him fucked by some guy against the wall of an alley. He didn't want Marco to see him break under that man, or to see the tears that came after the man left. But, to Ace it felt like he didn't have a choice and that hurt more than anything else.

Ace felt Burgess finish undoing his belt, "Should be begin Ace?" the man asked forcing one of his hand under Ace's shorts and underwear. He raised his other hand to Ace's mouth and issued a command, "Suck."

Ace shook his head and opened his mouth to protest, but Burgess took that opportunity to stick two of his fingers into Ace's mouth. Ace made a sound of surprise, but understood and started to do as he was told.

"That's right, know your place." Burgess said. "Damn Ace, you're such a slut and so good at things like this."

Ace looked away not wanting to hear what Burgess was saying. Burgess laughed cruelly. Burgess leaned forward and reached around Ace's hips to his entrance. Ace shivered knowing what would come next he squeezed his eyes closed in a desperate attempt to stay calm and not to panic. Burgess smiled evilly as he rammed two of his thick fingers into Ace's entrance causing Ace to cry out in pain as his eyes threatened to tear up.

Marco had been too stunned by what was taking place, but Ace's cry had snapped him out of it. It was the last straw that caused Marco's usually calm temper to fly completely out of control. Before he knew what was happening Marco's body had sprouted the blue flames that were a trademark of his other form. He seemed to disappear and reappear behind Burgess with an insane look on his face.

"Let him go," Marco growled causing Burgess to turn pulling his fingers out of Ace and making the boy gasp in pain again, which spiked Marco's anger even more.

"Who the fuck do you think you," Burgess started to say before Marco spun switching his standing leg and delivering a powerful kick to the man's side sending the man flying to the open end of the alley.

Marco followed the man moving faster than most people can see and right as Burgess was getting to his feet delivered another kick. He lifted his foot bending backwards to deliver the kick to the man's jaw. Marco kept his arms spread to maintain his balance as he let the momentum of the kick pull him to follow through with a clean and effortless backwards flip. Marco moved forwards to add another kick when he heard a small voice from behind him.

"Stop," Ace said sounding eerily calm.

It made Marco pause, giving Burgess the time to get up and run in the opposite direction. Marco clenched his fists and grit his teeth but let the man escape. He took a deep breath to calm himself and dismissed his flames with a sad sigh. He ran a hand through his hair and turned back toward Ace who had his gaze focused on the ground in front of his feet. Marco approached him and stood across from him, not knowing exactly what to say.

"Just go," Ace pled crossing his arms and holding back tears.

"Why would I do that?" Marco wondered frowning.

"Because," Ace croaked, "I'm disgusting, and dirty, and you hate me."

For a bit Marco was too surprised to say anything, which played into Ace's fears and made him want to just take off and hope he was faster than the blonde. Which from what he saw earlier; he wasn't. Ace finally looked up from the pavement and glanced at Marco's expression. For the second time he was surprised at what he found there. Instead of disgust and hatred Ace saw a soft expression in Marco's sky blue eyes as his pineapple hair was tilted slightly sideways with his head while the rest of his face was blank. Then Marco took a step forward and wrapped Ace in a tight hug; one that reminded him of the hug he gave to Izou when some jerk in high school told him that he made an ugly woman. Ace's head fit perfectly underneath Marco's jaw and Marco rocked back and forth gently as he spoke.

"I don't hate you; you're not disgusting or dirty." Marco soothed.

"You don't hate me?" Ace trembled.

"No," Marco replied pulling apart from ace just enough to look him in the eyes. "But Ace you don't have to do this. You hate this. I know you do. I can see it on your face. So why are you forcing yourself to do this."

"Forcing myself?" Ace snarled before starting to scream at Marco, "Don't you get it? I don't have a choice!" Ace pushed Marco roughly away and continued to yell. "I don't do this because I want to or even to make money! I either do this or I die; those are my only options! I don't get to have a choice!"

Ace began to storm off when Marco caught his wrist he didn't grip it too tightly. He didn't want to hurt or scare Ace. He just needed Ace to stay and hear what he had to say. Ace needed help. He needed to be free of Teach even if he didn't think that was possible.

"Ace I didn't mean," He began, but was cut off.

"Let go of me!" Ace screamed awakening his fire with his mess of strong emotions and need to escape. His red and orange flames sprung to life on his arms and hands as he attempted to make Marco let go, even if that meant burning the man.

Marco raised his high arching eyebrows in surprise but didn't let go of Ace's wrist. He felt the heat, but it wasn't painful as his own blue flames awakened on his skin to keep Ace's flames from doing any damage. The cool blue flames danced against the red fending them off gently.

Ace's breath caught as his saw the blue flames arise and defend their master. He'd not been playing enough attention to notice them earlier when they were used against Burgess. But now he stood mesmerized feeling the calming, rejuvenating flames against his own and completely forgot about trying to run away. Instead he stopped and stared at the mingling flames in awe.

Ace took Marco's hand in both of his own keeping his flames on his hands as he ran his thumbs over each finger observing the flames that would sprout there. He noticed how his flames could do no harm to Marco as the blue flames seemed to repair any injury before it even occurred. Marco smiled softly and let Ace toy with his hand and the blue flames that were covering it. Ace's touch was soft and his eyes were curious as he started to relax.

"How," Ace wondered softly. "How can you have flames when I ate the mera mera no mi? I should be the only one with fire powers."

"There's more than one devil's fruit power with a fire attribute." Marco responded simply.

"Like," Ace prompted.

Marco chuckled, "oh lots of them. Mine's quite a rare one in fact."

"Would you just tell me what it is?" Ace complained.

"No." Marco denied.

"Why not?" Ace demanded.

"Because giving out information about your devil's fruit power is like telling people your weakness and I don't know you well enough to tell you." Marco explained.

"Because I'm an untouchable or because I work for Blackbeard," Asked Ace glumly.

"You already know I don't give a damn about the first thing. And Blackbeard already knows what my power is. If he wants to kill me, he knows where to find me, but it won't be easy for him." Marco replied. "Ace I didn't mean what you thought I did earlier. I know that you didn't choose this, but I can help you."

"It's not that simple." Ace murmured.

"I know Teach won't give up easily, but I'm strong and so is my family. We can help you get away from him." Marco argued.

"No you can't! It doesn't matter if you're stronger than he is. I can't just escape. There's a reason I have to work for him! If I escape, he'll destroy me." Ace retorted.

Marco paused and reached up to take Ace's chin in his hands and forced him to look up into his eyes. Marco couldn't help but marvel at their charcoal color with the flecks of black and light spots. "What does he have over you, Ace?" Marco asked concerned.

"It's none of your business." Ace mumbled. "And I don't know you well enough to tell you." He quoted.

Macro laughed. "Nice, use my words against me. But really, just give my family and me a chance. Whether we can help or not, wouldn't it be better to have someone to lean on."

"You,"

"What about me?" Marco asked.

"I'll give you a chance but not your family. I already have one. I don't want another." Ace explained. "But no more coming to look for me I'll find you. I know where your house is."

"Fine," Marco conceded with a sigh, not really liking the conditions.

"I should go now. I'm sure Blackbeard isn't going to be happy with me about what happened with Burgess." Ace explained wanting to get away as soon as possible so that he could sort out his thoughts.

"Damn it, I'm sorry I wasn't thinking. I didn't think that you'd be hurt because of what I did." Marco said apologetically.

"I know." Ace said as began to walk away only pausing to look back and add. "I'll find you, I promise."

…

It was late at night when Law finally got off work. As he exited the hospital he spotted Kidd's sleeping figure under the same grove of trees he'd been taking refuge under earlier. A sly smile crawled over his face as he approached the sleeping redhead. The man showed no signs of stirring and Law kicked him lightly with his boot. Seeing as he got no response a mischievous idea whispered in his ear. Law stepped over Kidd with one leg straddling the man as Kidd's legs were extended in front of him while his back leaned against the tree. Law slowly lowered himself until he was sitting on Kidd's hips. Kidd stirred feeling the added weight but didn't wake.

Law leans forward until his lips brush the skin of Kidd's ear a breaths, "Wake up Stalker-ya." Kidd doesn't wake and Law feels the urge to pout, since he doesn't appreciate being ignored. "Ney, Stalker-ya wake up or I'll have to make you wake up." Law threatened running the tips fingers down Kidd's bare chest. Kidd moves a bit but still doesn't wake. "Fine have it your way." Law moves his lips just under Kidd's jaw and bites, not hard, but hard enough to rouse Kidd from his sleep with a jolt.

"What the fuck?" Kidd yelled pushing Law off of him; who burst into a fit of laughter rolling around on the ground like a child. "What was that for?"

"You wouldn't wake up," Law explained between laughs, "Oh my god, your face right now is priceless."

"I should kill you, damn raccoon," Kidd bellowed hoisting Law up by the front of his shirt and holding him in the air. Law just continued to laugh and swing his legs wildly in the air. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't strangle you here and now."

Law stopped laughing but a grin was still on his face, "You could, or you could come with me to one of my favorite bars and let me buy you a couple rounds."

"Why do I feel like you're suggesting more than your words let on?" Kidd asked giving Law a suspicious look while he set him back on his feet.

"Because you're smarter than you look," Law said poking Kidd with his fingers and leaned in close to him again, "And because you liked it when I bit you." Law jogs a little way ahead and laughs lightly again.

"I did not you damn creepy doctor!" Kidd said with a face as red as his hair. Law laughed as Kidd began to chase after him.

…

Since most of the crew had to get up early in the morning, most of the Strawhats had left the Going Merry leaving Sanji and Zoro alone at the bar while Franky was busy tending to other patrons. Luffy had been practically dragged from the bar by Nami only giving in once Sanji had promised to cook for the whole crew at a later date at his home. They had both had a few drinks but Sanji knew he had to stop to keep from looking like a complete idiot. It was obvious that he shouldn't have another since Zoro's three earrings had been somewhat distracting to him for the last twenty minutes. They were so shiny he just wanted touch them, but knowing that would be an insanely awkward thing to do, he refrained.

"So, is three your lucky number or something, Marimo?" Sanji couldn't help but ask, alcohol giving him a nice buzz that caused his thought to take strange tangents.

"What are you talking about Curl-brows?" Zoro questioned.

"Three swords, three earrings, and there's no importance to that." Sanji explained.

Sanji could no longer withstand the urge that was making his hand twitch more than his nearly constant need for a cigarette. He reached with his hand to slide his hand up Zoro's jaw to his ear and let his fingers brush the three earrings that were hanging there. That contact of Sanji's skin with his earlobe sent a strange shiver of tingles down Zoro's spine and straight to his groin. He couldn't control the small sound that escaped his lips or the heat that then settled uncomfortably on his face as a deep blush. He could hope that Sanji didn't notice but based on the way the man froze, his eyes widening, and a small smile turning up is lips; he most definitely heard it.

Sanji's smile was devilish as he began to massage Zoro's ear with his finger and thumb. Zoro unintentionally leaned into the touch. The tingling and heat became nearly uncomfortable as the cook continued his motions. He tried to resist the urge to moan by clenching his jaw shut. He squeezed his eyes shut and started to squirm when Sanji leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Do you like that Marimo? It's weird. You didn't seem to respond like this last time I was doing this." Sanji mused.

His breath teased across Zoro's other ear, making the green haired man lash out to get the blonde away from him so that the sensation wouldn't overcome his self control. Zoro pushed Sanji away harshly with embarrassment. Sadly, he'd pushed with a little too much force sending Sanji off of his chair and onto the floor. Sanji didn't seem to be hurt since he immediately started snickering.

"Shut up you stupid shit-cook!" Zoro exclaimed. "And get up off the floor," he added getting up and offering the cook one of his hands.

Sanji took the offered hand a returned quickly and easily to his feet. "So, got any other fetishes I need to know about?" He teased.

"Shut up." Zoro seethed to which Sanji responded with a giggle. Zoro frowned. "Are you drunk?"

"No," Sanji insisted. "I only had a few drinks, lighten up. It's just fun to tease you, Moss-head."

"Screw you, Ero-cook." Zoro retorted. "Maybe you should head home."

"How do I know you won't follow me, pervert-moss?" Sanji asked with a smile resembling a sneer.

"In your condition maybe I should." Zoro mocked.

"Oh no," Sanji shook his head, "You are not coming anywhere near my house without another person present."

"Why," Zoro asked with a smirk, "Are you worried that I'll do something you like; like last time?"

"Ugh," Sanji groaned, "Don't even talk about that."

"Have it your way shit-cook," Zoro chuckled, "I still know you liked it."

"Shut up!" Sanji yelled.

"Then if you didn't like it you shouldn't have a problem with me walking you home."

"Maybe I don't feel like being assaulted," Sanji interjected.

"Bull shit, you could easily have resisted if you wanted to; that spar we had today proved that." Zoro retorted. "Admit it; you just don't want to believe that you are attracted to a guy who isn't of your caste." Zoro knew it was unfair to pull that on Sanji when the man clearly didn't care about castes, but if it let him walk Sanji home; Zoro couldn't care less.

"That's not true." Sanji claimed smile falling off his face as he became solemn and serious. "You know that."

"Then there's no reason I can't walk you home."

Sanji chewed his lip anxiously. "Fine," he conceded, "but you can't come inside. Law will flip shit if he sees you again."

"Agreed, that guy is creepy." Zoro nodded.

…

Law and Kidd had made it to the Yellow Submarine Bar. Law paused outside the bar to allow Kidd to catch up with him, though the red haired man wasn't far behind. Thankfully the run had managed to cool Kidd's temper somewhat which enabled him to control the urge to beat the shit out of Law for his earlier comment.

"This is your favorite bar?" Kidd inquired raising an eyebrow.

"They have exquisite imported vodka and the bar keep doesn't try to stop me when I want to get fall over drunk." Law explained as the two entered the bar that was made almost completely of metal on the inside. They took seats at the bar and Law nudged Kidd with his elbow. "Ney, Eustass-ya, I bet that I can drink more than you can."

"Bull shit, you're way smaller than I am so your alcohol tolerance is lower than mine you'll end up passed out on the floor before I finish the second shot." Kidd snorted.

"So we have a bet then?" Law smiled at Kidd.

"What do I get if I win?" Kidd asked.

"I don't know," Law drawled giving Kidd a seductive look. "What do you want?"

"Information," Kidd stated ignoring Law's attempt at seduction.

"Is that so?" Law asked, "Hey, can we have shots of the fancy vodka over here?" The barkeep caught Law's look and nodded. "Very well, if you win I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but if I win you have to come on a date with me."

"You don't even know what I want information about yet." Kidd frowned.

"It doesn't matter what you want to know." Law suggested with a smirk. "Because I'm going to win and then I don't have to tell you anything anyway."

"You're on raccoon." Kidd challenged.

"Must everyone always comment on the dark circles? Are they attractive or something?" Law muttered as the glasses arrived.

Each of the men took one of the shots and then another, and then another. It was about six shots in when both men started to act slightly strange although Kidd was starting to get suspicious of Law. The man had to weigh around one hundred and ten pounds, he should be very drunk by the sixth shot, but he seemed equal or almost less drunk than Kidd. Either the doctor had a strangely high alcohol tolerance or something was wrong with his vodka.

"Getting worried Eustass-ya?" Law teased with a smirk leaning against Kidd like an overgrown cat nuzzling into his side and neck.

"Like hell!" Kidd exclaimed trying to get Law off of him but the doctor seemed to be determined to stay cuddled into him. "The only thing I'm worried about is your weird ass cuddling habits creepy-doc."

"Aww," Law cooed, "You just embarrassed." Law started to trace the outlines of Kidd muscles on his torso as his eyes were half lidded. Seeing as Kidd didn't react to what he was doing he moved on to licking and biting the flesh of Kidd neck which caused the bigger man to flinch and tense. "You know you could always ask for something else instead of information, that is if you win the bet. If I didn't know better I would say you're quite attracted to me."

"Lay off, weird raccoon." Kidd growled in warning but stopped trying to push Law away as he found himself not really caring with the amount of alcohol in his system as the two took another shot each.

"You're so cute Eustass-ya." Law bubbled.

"Shut up," Kidd groaned.

"Why," Law whispered, "I find you attractive and you obviously find me attractive, so why can't you cut the charade and let yourself have some fun with me." Law bit the lobe of Kidd's ear and breathed, "How about you come back to my place and I make you feel very good?"

Kidd reacted harshly to this sentiment. He roughly pushed Law off of his chair and onto his feet which made a snide smile form on Law's face as he knew he'd managed to get the man fairly riled up. Kidd pushed Law back until Law felt the wall behind him. Kidd, at this point was fairly drunk, seeing as his face was tinted in a way that was not completely lustful. Kidd in his stupor tilted Law's head and forcefully pressed their lips together. He wasted no time in entering Law's mouth with his tongue. Something about the creepy doctor made Kidd want to elicit all kinds of sounds and reactions out of him.

Law gasped and let his eyes flutter closed as he enjoyed the feelings that Kidd inspired within his body. This is exactly why he'd baited Kidd in the first place. Something had to break the man out of his shell and from experience Law knew that alcohol was one of those things that often did that; even if only temporarily.

Their tongues tangled as Kidd's hand slide up Law's torso underneath his shirt and sweatshirt. Law reached forward and did the same thing running his hands down Kidd's back he felt scars; he liked the texture under his fingertips. He'd no doubt that they were old battle wounds.

Kidd pulled back to utter, "How do you know I wouldn't be the one making you feel very good?"

"Eustass-ya, I had no idea you were so aggressive." Law drawled.

Kidd rolled his eyes, knowing that somehow this was all the vermin's fault. He situated one of his hands on Law's hip while the other one continued to roam the doctor's perfect body. Kidd had to admit the doctor was insanely sexy. He pressed his lips back to Law's hungrily and moved one of his legs in between Law's. Law countered by wrapping his arms around Kidd's neck and tilting his head to give Kidd more access. Kidd's tongue and his own wrapped around each other feeling the muscles interacting sent heat down Law's body to settle in the pit of his stomach.

He let out a moan and Kidd's lips left his the string of salvia they'd exchanged breaking as he did. He gave the doctor one of his maniac smiles and starting biting and sucking at the doctor's neck. Law found his breath becoming heavier and his face was heated with a dark shade of red coloring his olive skin. Kidd's hand moved from Law's hip down his leg and to the back of his knee, the other hand moved down to Law's ass. Kidd lifted the smaller man to sandwich Law tightly between himself and the wall. Law made a small gasp as his back hit the wall and he felt Kidd body pressed into his giving him a delightful amount of friction. He squirmed and fidgeted feeling Kidd strong abdominal muscles flush against his groin through the layers of fabric. His breath started to come in pants and he couldn't help but moan at the contact. Kidd groaned feeling the mass in Law's pants on his stomach.

The hand formerly on Law's knee moved upward to push the fabric of Law's shirts up his torso revealing the tattooed flesh there. Kidd leaned in taking one of Law's erect nipples between his lips and beginning to suck and lick at it. The actions sent deeper waves of pleasure through Law making him whimper nearly uncontrollably as he arched his spine, threw his head back, and his toes curled within his heeled boots.

"E-Eustass-ya we're still in public." Law moaned.

"Do you think I care?" Kidd asked, "Let them watch."

"So, eugh, controlling aren't you." Law panted.

"CAPTAIN?" A voice exclaimed from the doorway causing both Law's and Kidd's heads to snap in that direction like two teenagers caught after school by a teacher. Penguin stood just inside the door eyes wide in shock at the scene of his captain pinned to the wall in a sexual manner by a strange redhead.

"Oh, uh, Penguin-ya, you're here early today." Law stuttered pushing Kidd away in a gentle manner.

"Who is this guy?" Law's subordinate asked sharply.

"This is Eustass-ya, we met at my work yesterday." Law stated stepping away from a very confused and still very turned on Kidd.

"Who the fuck are you?" A belligerent Kidd inquired.

"I'm Captain Law's first mate, asshole." Penguin responded before turning to Law. "Captain we have trouble the people from the zoo are after Bepo again. We need you right away."

"You always have to interrupt at the exact moment when things become fun." Law sighed. "Where are they?" He asked allowing Penguin to lead him out of the bar.

"What about our bet?" Kidd bellowed.

Law chuckled, "Well seeing as I've been drinking juice while you've been drinking vodka, I'd say we let it wait till next time."

"You lying vermin, you tricked me." Kidd accused.

"Yep," Law affirmed exiting the bar with a smile. "But not about the attraction thing."

…

Sanji and Zoro walked at a relaxed pace on their way back to Sanji's although Sanji was very concerned with the number of times he had to stop Zoro from turning the wrong way. He pulled out a smoke and lit it casually. The rounded the final corner and Sanji felt the relaxation spread throughout his being, even though he still didn't trust the Marimo alone with him. The green haired man wanted something from him and Sanji was inclined to believe it was similar to their last interactions. He wasn't sure if he wanted the same thing yet.

Sanji would admit that he found the swordsman attractive, especially with all the muscles and scars. Alternatively, Law had also been correct when he said that Sanji was too kind for his own good. The blonde couldn't forget what happened the last time he'd let someone too close too fast. He and Gin hadn't been involved romantically, but he'd been blindsided by the man's betrayal. He didn't want to feel that way again. They rounded the final corner and they paused in front of Sanji's door awkwardly. Neither knew what to say when they heard a voice not far off that made them both grimace.

"Ok boy do a few rounds through the area, you know the drill," Came the guard's voice followed by the pounding of nearby footsteps.

"Fuck," Sanji cursed quickly unlocking the door, "hurry get inside."

"Oh so now I'm allowed inside." Zoro sneered.

"Shut up, moss-ball, do you want to get thrown in jail?" Sanji yelled pulling Zoro along with him into his house.

_**Ok, so at least there was some good interaction in this chapter. So i wanted to let you all know that i'm going to be starting another fic soon so i may not be as frequent with updates to this one, but that just depends on how it goes. It will be a Marco/Ace Kidd/Law fic so i hope that you all who support those couples will read it i'm not sure of the title yet. Also thank you for the continued support with reviews. You guys are awesome. **_

_**-LPC**_

…


	8. Chapter 8

After clearing things up with the zookeepers and Bepo, Law decided to head back to Sanji's even though Bepo's place was closer. He worried that the green haired man from last night would be there again. He was walking down a side street when a familiar figure stepped out from behind a dumpster. The figure was pale, scrawny and wearing a grey sweat suit.

Law stopped and growled, "What the fuck do you think you're doing here? After everything you've done you think it's a good idea to show your face to me. I should kill you right now."

Gin's face showed no expression. "Do you think that's what Sanji would want?" He asked blandly.

"You left him to die in a burning building after your boss poisoned him. He had four broken ribs!" Law said grinding his teeth. "I'm past caring what Sanji would want! He saved your life and you repaid him by nearly ending his. If I hadn't gotten to him in time to counteract the poison, Sanji would be dead. I don't care if he would hate me. I'm not losing my best friend because of you." Law screamed getting ready to activate his ope ope powers.

"How did you find Sanji in time?" Gin asked nonchalantly letting his hand float to his tonfa balls in case Law decided to go a more violent route.

"He texted me from his transponder snail," Law said frowning.

"And you think that my boss is stupid enough to let a prisoner keep their transponder snail so that they can send for help?" Gin asked suspiciously. "Krieg isn't that stupid."

"Where are you going with this?" Law inquired.

"I'm the one who sent that text from Sanji's snail." Gin confessed. "And I'm the one here to warn you that Krieg knows Sanji's alive, and he plans to correct that. So maybe instead of threatening me, you should listen because I don't want Sanji dead either."

Law bit his lip but murmured, "I'm listening."

…

Kidd managed to stumble his way back to the hotel that he called a home and a base for his crew. He'd hoped that he could get back and immediately go to sleep in his wonderfully comfortable bed. He wished to sleep off the intoxication and then wake up, roll over, and sleep off the hangover he was very likely to have afterward. Seeing as he ran into Killer as soon as he opened the door, he doubted he'd be getting to bed so easily.

"Good evening Captain. Or should I say good morning?" Killer smiled beneath his mask noticing the red tint to Kidd's face. "You know for someone who left to get information from someone, you look fairly intoxicated."

"The fucking raccoon tricked me." Kidd grumbled.

"Into getting drunk," Killer asked amused and watched as Kidd's frown deepened. "This raccoon may be more dangerous than we first assumed."

"You're telling me." Kidd said walking past Killer towards his personal bedroom. "Either way I'm going to sleep I don't want to think about that creepy doctor anymore."

"Whatever you say, Captain." Killer shrugged.

"What do you mean by that?" Kidd groaned as his head started to throb.

"Nothing," Killer supposed, "just that usually when someone tricks you they end up a bloody mess on the ground. I'm guessing that did not happen since there is no trace of blood on you. Do you happen to like this vermin, Captain?"

"Like hell! I hate that fucking conniving, evil, sexy, smartass, ass-hole raccoon!" Kidd yelled.

"What was that third one?" Killer questioned as his smile was hidden.

"Huh?" Kidd wondered, "What are you talking about?"

"You were just saying how much you hate that conniving, evil, SEXY, smartass, ass-hole raccoon." Killer repeated with emphasis. "To think you've even already given him a pet-name."

"I did not say that." Kidd stated stunned.

"Yes, indeed you did." Killer responded.

"I couldn't have. The vermin is a man and I'm a man. So I couldn't have said that." Kidd blankly stared at his first mate.

"I didn't know you were so close minded." Killer said and Kidd rolled his eyes. "I'm serious Captain. I'm not going to argue with you since you're my Captain, but I want you to keep something in mind. If you find this man attractive, then I don't think you should let your ideals get in the way. He tricked you, which means he's smart and that he's unafraid of your violent behavior. He might be someone who can act your equal. Do you want to throw that away because you're both men?"

Kidd looked to the side and scratched the back of his head. "I'm going to sleep." As he went to his bedroom, Kidd pausing briefly before entering with his hand on the door, added, "Thanks Killer, I'll keep that in mind, if I remember this in the morning."

"No problem, Captain." Killer replied.

…

Zoro was annoyed to say the least; he'd hoped that getting into Sanji's house would lead somewhere like it had the last time. But the cook had immediately demanded that if Zoro was going to stay it would be far away from Sanji. Sanji told Zoro that if he was staying he would stay in Law's old room, while Sanji occupied his own room, alone. Zoro wasn't thrilled with that, but he should have known it would take a bit more time for the strange blonde to open up. Still it was incredibly annoying.

He lay on the bed that was incredibly plush and stared at the ceiling. Strangely enough night was the only time when Zoro couldn't fall asleep. When he and Ace were young in the East District, they'd trained themselves to be basically nocturnal. It wasn't safe to be an Untouchable child and asleep at night. It was the time when the East District came alive with whore houses, Pirates, and those of the higher castes coming to take advantage of whatever they could take away from the lowest caste. That included abducting children and selling them into near slavery. And Zoro wasn't about to let anything happen to himself or Ace.

As he lay listening he could hear Sanji toss and turn in the other room. He couldn't help but wonder if the blonde also couldn't sleep or if he was just not sleeping well. Zoro had learned to listen almost even in his sleep so that nothing could sneak up on him. It was probably the only reason that he could hear Sanji's movements one room over. The sound of a key in the lock of the front door startled Zoro, and from the sound of the body getting up; it startled Sanji as well.

Zoro heard the door open and Sanji's soft footfalls across the floor. It was only a few seconds before the murmurs of voice reached his ears. On one hand Zoro wasn't one to pry into other people's business, but on the other hand, Zoro wanted to be involved with Sanji's business and he was sure Luffy would agree. He got out of the bed and opened the door to the bedroom. He wasn't surprised to see that Sanji's creepy best friend was back; but he also wasn't thrilled about it.

"What the hell is he doing here again?" Law shouted angrily upon seeing Zoro.

"Nice to see you too, eye-shadow." Zoro responded.

"Why couldn't you just stay in the room?" Sanji wondered aloud holding his head with a sigh he added. "If we're all going to be awake I might as well make some damn coffee. Try not to kill each other while I make it." Sanji glared at the two other men before vanishing into his kitchen.

"I don't know what your plan is, or why you're getting close to Sanji-ya." Law threatened, "But if you hurt him I'll surgically remove your testacies in the most painful way possible before I kill you."

"What I don't know is why you cling onto Shit-cook like some hormonal teenage girlfriend when from what I can see Shit-cook is more than able to fight for himself." Zoro questioned in return.

Law ground his teeth before responding in a serious manner, "Sanji is different from the other Celestial Dragons. He doesn't care what collar you wear but can see the value in everyone. That's why people take advantage of him. I won't let that happen."

"Again," Zoro added. "You won't let it happen again. Since you've already let it happen once with Krieg."

Law's eyes widened as his muscles tensed preparing to fight to kill at any moment, "And who told you about that?"

"A little bird." Zoro shrugged.

"Robin-chan then," Sanji surmised entering the room and causing both Law and Zoro to look at him in shock.

"Sanji-ya," Law said looking down guiltily knowing that Sanji had overheard most if not all of their conversation.

"It's fine." Sanji said handing a mug of coffee to Law and Zoro each and taking out a cigarette. "Well seeing as you've done so much research on me, why don't you enlighten us on exactly how much you know about me and Krieg?" Sanji asked lighting his cigarette and coming to stand beside Law giving Zoro an untrusting look.

Now it was Zoro's turn to look away as he explained. "Not much, Robin told me that Krieg had injured, poisoned, and left a Celestial Dragon in a burning building to die. Since you two were whispering about it when I was here; we guessed that the Celestial Dragon was you." Zoro returned his gaze slowly to Sanji's; who's expression was blank mostly as if what was being talked about didn't concern him.

"Is that it?" Sanji asked blandly. "Looks like you only have half the story after all."

"Sanji-ya," Law started.

"It's fine." Sanji stated sternly. "He can know."

…

It had been snowing on the day Sanji found Gin outside the Beratie. Sanji had been taking out the trash when he encountered Gin, who was covered in snow and looking particularly placid. Sanji couldn't let someone who needed help starve outside in a damn near blizzard when he could do something about it. Sanji brought some food out to Gin. Who, even though he said he wouldn't accept charity, ate all of it.

After that the two men became close friends quickly. Gin became a frequent visitor of Sanji's house and even Law had eventually accepted his company, although begrudgingly. The three men would drink together. That was how Sanji and Law came to find out about Gin first mate position within the Krieg pirate. Gin was proud of the crew he belonged to and believed in his captain even if the crew had fallen on hard times and nearly starved. Sanji and Law didn't think it was of much consequence that Gin was in a Pirate crew, after all Law was a captain of his own. What they hadn't known was how cruel of a man Don Krieg was.

Gin, after being saved by Sanji, had thought that he should let Krieg know that there was someone who would be willing to feed the starving crew. Yet, after Krieg had learned about Sanji, he decided that it would be best to use the Celestial Dragon for money and power. Krieg had told Gin to bring Sanji to a specific factory in the West District. Once there Krieg tried to threaten Sanji into giving Krieg money to run his crew, into using his power as a Celestial Dragon to get new territories for Krieg's crew, and into becoming Krieg's subordinate.

When Sanji refused Krieg had order his crew to kill him, thinking that if his crew killed a Celestial Dragon they would rise in infamy and other crews would join them. Sanji didn't back down as he could easily dispatch Krieg's general forces. Pearl, one of Krieg's stronger henchmen, was more difficult to defeat. The armor he wore made it difficult for Sanji's kick's to do any real damage. Sanji was hurt multiple times by Pearl's attacks, but Sanji fianlly broke the armor and defeated him as well. Krieg was furious by this point, but when he commanded Gin to kill Sanji, Gin would not.

This forced Krieg to take matters into his own hands, because while Gin wouldn't kill Sanji, he also wouldn't stand in the way of Krieg himself. Being already injured by his fight with Pearl, Sanji wasn't able to avoid Krieg's attacks as he would have been able to do in normal condition. Krieg's spear which had been laced with poisoned cut Sanji many times leaving the blonde unable to stand and Krieg shot Sanji three times with his weapons before the factory caught fire.

Krieg and his crew, including Gin left in a rush to escape the flames. They left Sanji there unconscious, bleeding, and poisoned. Krieg had thought that Sanji would die. He would have, if Law had not made it in time.

…

"And now Krieg knows that Sanji-ya survived." Law finished. "I met Gin today." He looked down so that he didn't have to see Sanji's eyes. "He said that Krieg is still after you, and that he blames you for the crewmembers that died in the factory fire. That he still wants to kill you."

"How annoying," Sanji sighed while Zoro remained eerily quiet as the story ended. "He starts the fire that kills his own crew and somehow it's my damn fault."

"Sanji-ya this is serious." Law stated with a glare, "What are you going to do?"

Sanji stood and stretched his spine with his arms above his head with a yawn. "I'm going to go to sleep." He shrugged lazily causing Law to sigh.

"Sanji-ya, Krieg's out there probably planning to kill you right now, can't you be serious?" Law requested.

"Yeah, Curlyque, for once I agree with your clingy friend, you're taking this too lightly." Zoro nodded furrowing his eyebrows in annoyance.

"No." Sanji said lighting another cigarette and exhaling the smoke smoothly. "You two are underestimating me. It's not like I've been lounging around watching Snailvision since the incident. I'm not weak. If Krieg wants to try to kill me," Sanji smirked, "let him try. This time I'll shatter that suit of his as if it were glass. If he comes for me, I'll destroy him."

Sanji smiled back at the two men in his living room looking completely confident in just his pajama pant, smoking his cigarette coolly as he leaned on the wall in an attractive manner. Zoro could tell that the cook eyes were alight with deviousness and it sent shivers down his spine. Truthfully, Zoro had no way of knowing if Sanji had any right to act this confident, but it was sexy. Zoro swallowed dryly unaware of the deadly glares he was receiving from Law.

"Now, I'm going to bed. Are either of you coming?" Sanji asked seductively almost daring Zoro to respond.

"I swear to god, if you say yes I will decapitate you right here." Law growled as Zoro moved to open his mouth. "I get it Sanji-ya. I'll be in shortly." Law said.

Sanji shrugged somewhat disappointed although he knew Law wasn't about to let the Marimo share a bedroom with him. "Suit yourself." He offered as he turned and disappeared into his bedroom.

"So, now you know everything." Law grumbled unhappily. "I still don't know how or why you ended up here again, but if I find out you have any motives like Krieg had about Sanji; I'll murder you slowly and painfully."

"If I've heard it once I've heard it a thousand times." Zoro grinned. "Relax Circles, Cook is safe with me."

"Highly doubt it," Law mumbled rising and entering Sanji's bedroom closing the door softly behind him.

…

Ace was not happy to report to Blackbeard after what had happened with Burgess and Marco. He knew that Blackbeard would be furious, and that he'd be punished for what happened. Shivers of fear ran down his spine. Punishment was never a pleasant experience. Too often Blackbeard had used his darkness powers to remind Ace of his place in life. Blackbeard would use his powers to take away Ace's senses; sight, smell, hearing, touch. Everything would vanish leaving Ace in just endless darkness without sense of time and space. It had nearly driven Ace to insanity; it had almost broken him, many times.

That wasn't the worst part though. The worst part was emerging from the darkness and not knowing what they'd done to him while he was trapped. To awake to pain, blood, bruises, and being covered in fluids. The first time it happened Ace couldn't stop shaking for a week and couldn't sleep for months. He never told anyone about any of it; not even Zoro, who was Ace's only confidant.

Ace walked slowly as possible back to Blackbeard's place; a whorehouse the crew ran. He thought of what would happen once he was there. His mind told him to run, to go far away and never come back, but his body knew it had to keep walking. Because, if he ran, he would lose what little he still had. He remembered the day that he learned one man could destroy everything he cared about. The day Sabo nearly died at Blackbeard's hands.

It shouldn't have happened it was all a mistake, and now Ace would pay for it for the rest of his life. Sabo was the reason Ace couldn't run away. Blackbeard held Sabo captive, if Ace could call it that. Sabo was imprisoned in Blackbeard's darkness as his withering body looked like an empty shell when Ace was lucky enough to see him. If Ace ran Sabo would die and Blackbeard would make sure it wasn't a quick death. Ace couldn't let that happen, so he continue to work for Blackbeard. And Sabo wouldn't be the only one Blackbeard would kill. Blackbeard would go after Luffy as well.

Ace refused to let that happen. He refused to let any harm come to his brothers when he could do something to stop it, even if that meant suffering himself. He'd told Luffy none of this. He knew Luffy would try to take on Blackbeard directly, so he'd lied. He told Luffy that Sabo had been killed by a Celestial Dragon. Only Zoro knew the truth about what Ace was doing and why and even then Ace had been vague. He had to at least protect Luffy above everything else.

Ace's mind went back to the incident with Marco and Burgess. He'd been expecting something very different than what'd happened. Marco had looked as if he were going to kill Burgess. He'd become so angry and only for the sake of Ace. It confused the raven to no end. The blonde barely knew him and yet had become so volatile for his sake. Thinking about it made heat rise to Ace's cheeks. Could Ace really kill someone who hadn't done anything to him and even had tried to help him?

It didn't matter if he could or couldn't, Ace thought. Not killing Marco wasn't an option. Ace knew who would be hurt if he didn't complete the task. As he reached the whorehouse he prepared himself for what was most likely going to happen. He focused his eyes on the ground trying not to let his fear show and entered the seedy establishment.

…

_**Sorry about taking so long to update my computer was fried and i had writers block. I'm wondering if you all still want to read this since not a lot of people have been reviewing. I want to keep writing but if no one is reading it then... i don't know. Thank you to those of you who did review. Hopefully i can update sooner next time since my computers fixed.**_

_**-LPC**_


	9. Chapter 9

"Ace, I thought you would be coming soon." Blackbeard smiled as Ace entered his office. Burgess was there as well which made Ace tense. He'd hoped he'd be able to explain things before Burgess showed up. "I heard that your appointment with Burgess was interrupted by my old comrade Marco."

"Yeah, but," Ace began only to be cut off by the purple haired wrestler.

"He had that pineapple guy beat me up!" Burgess accused.

"That's not true!" Ace yelled. "I didn't know he was going to track me down! How is it my fault that he just randomly showed up?"

"Ace!" Blackbeard exclaimed causing Ace to flinch. "You will not talk to the members of my crew that way. You'd do well to remember you're place." Ace became silent and Burgess scoffed.

"This fucking harlot just watched as that pineapple guy attacked me." Burgess claimed. "I have bruises because of him."

"Burgess," Blackbeard nodded, "Ace will make up for what happened today. Isn't that right, Ace?" Ace could only nod with his eyes glued to the floor. "You had Ace's time for an hour so, since it was rudely interrupted Ace will spend two hours with you free of charge and refund you the money you already paid." Burgess smiled toothily before Blackbeard continued, "This will happen at a later date of your choosing. For now I need you to leave. I need to have a chat with Portgus."

Burgess grinned evilly as he left the room after receive the money back from Ace. He closed the door behind him leaving Ace and Blackbeard alone in the office. Ace worried that the worst was yet to come, but was terrified when Blackbeard started to laugh so hard that the robust man had to wipe his eyes free of tears.

"What did I tell you Ace, birdbrain sure did take a liking to you, even enough to beat up one of my men to protect you. Even I didn't know Marco was that chivalrous." Blackbeard laughed. "Marco will be wrapped around your finger in no time. That is if you still plan to hold true to our exchange." Blackbeard's tone grew to be serious.

"What do you mean by that?" Ace asked quietly.

Blackbeard looked at Ace with suspicion. "Nothing much, just that no matter what Marco offers; you should remember than he cannot help you. He cannot help you escape from me; that is, as long as you still want your brothers to be alive." Blackbeard shrugged. "Burgess overheard Marco offer you the Whitebeard pirate's assistance to rid yourself of me. I just want to make sure we're still on the same page."

"I'm not an idiot." Ace stated simply. "You have Sabo, I know if I try to escape you'll kill him and then go after Luffy."

"But Marco weaves words so well." Blackbeard interjected. "He'll offer you anything he can to persuade you to let him save you. He can't. Maybe I should remind you what it is you're trying to protect." Blackbeard sneered. Blackbeard waved his hand and the door to the office opened revealing Lafitte who was dragging a nearly limp boy behind him.

"Sabo," Ace gasped running toward the blonde boy and taking Sabo into his arms as if attempting to protect him from everything around them.

He couldn't though that much was obvious from Sabo's vacant expression. He was still underneath the affect of Black beard's darkness. Ace couldn't say that Sabo was in comforting condition. He sandy blonde hair was a mess even though it was short it looked tangled and matted. Ace couldn't see Sabo's eyes even though his eyes were open. His eyes themselves were covered in darkness and thereby colored completely black. Sabo's body was nearly emaciated. He looked almost like a living skeleton covered in thin pale skin. The clothes Sabo wore hung loosely to his starved form. The sight brought tears to Ace's eyes and he grit his teeth to keep them from falling. His knees gave out which brought both Sabo and him to the floor.

"I was thinking Ace, that you might need a bit more motivation to complete your task." Blackbeard offered, "So, let me edit our earlier deal. If you kill Marco and bring me proof of his death then I give you back your brother." Ace sat silently as he waited for Blackbeard to continue while his previous words rattled around in his brain. "You'd become a member of my crew, so there's no reason for me not to allow you to have your brother back."

Ace had never thought that Blackbeard would ever offer such a thing. He could have Sabo back? It was too good to be true, wasn't it? Sabo was in terrible condition even if Ace got him back; Sabo wouldn't be the same. Still he would do anything for Sabo to be safe and sound and away from his current captors.

"You would really let him go?" Ace asked with suspicion.

"As I said you'd be part of my crew there would be no reason for me to keep him." Blackbeard supposed, "That is as long as you were aware that if you disobeyed I would still kill him."

Ace stroked Sabo's messy hair as he held his brother in his lap. He imagined being able to talk with Sabo again, sharing meals with him again, and being able to tell Luffy that Sabo was alive. The three of them could be a family again. He knew Sabo would have trauma from all of the years he was a prisoner but at least he would be home again.

"I'll kill him." Ace said with determination before turning to Sabo and whispering softly, "Don't worry. I'll protect you and Luffy. I'll do whatever it takes and then we can go back home and see Luffy."

"I suggest you find a way to kill Marco soon." Blackbeard suggested. "As you might have noticed your brother is not in the best condition. He's been refusing to eat. I'm not accountable if he dies of his own accord."

…

Law had left Sanji's house early in the morning long before the blonde himself had awakened. Law strolled slowly through decrepit streets on his way to his destination. He thought about Sanji and the mess with Krieg. As much as he wanted to protect Sanji there was a good chance that the blonde planned to handle everything alone. Sanji had never been one to get other people involved with his problems. It annoyed Law to no end. Sanji so often helped others but wouldn't let anyone help him.

Law stopped in front of a large abandoned hotel that looked to have been remade with planks of wood and sheets of metal to fix the crumbling structure. Law smirked, so this was where Eustass-ya was staying. Most people, when they go to visit someone, just knock on the door. But Law wasn't normal, and that would've been too boring for the raven haired man. No, instead Law snuck around the hotel surreptitiously peering into any windows until he found one with the familiar redhead dead asleep on a large bed.

Law silently opened the window and let himself into the room. Kidd didn't stir when Law shut the window. Law chuckled softly this was the second time he'd snuck up on the redhead while he was sleeping. He wondered if this would become an everyday occurrence. Law observed that Kidd was fully clothed sleeping on top of the sheet with the rest of the blankets tangled around him. Law was disappointed; he'd hoped Kidd would be wearing less. But Law had to cut him a little slack, after all the doctor had gotten Kidd fairly drunk last night.

Still just because Kidd was fully clothed didn't mean Law had to be. Law slyly removed his sweatshirt and his t-shirt beneath that. The tattoos on his torso were revealed this way. He then proceeded to take off his boots and climb into the bed beside Kidd. Once again Law's actions did not awaken the sleeping captain. Law pulled on the blankets until he had enough untangled to cover himself somewhat.

Law situated himself on his side close to the sleeping man so that he could observe him closer as he slept. Kidd's head was turned toward Law and his mouth was slightly open as he snored softly. Law chuckled. He trailed his hand down Kidd cheek gently in a caress.

"You know Eustass-ya," Law whispered softly as to make sure that his words would not arouse his companion. "If you'd just give in, I'm sure we could be very good together. You want me, even if you won't admit it. And I definitely want you. I just have to figure out how I can convince you to agree with me."

Law sighed before cuddling close to the sleeping Kidd. He laid his head in the crook of Kidd's neck, wrapped his arms around Kidd's torso, and pulled himself flush against Kidd's form. He could feel Kidd's breath ruffle his hair. He could both feel and hear his bedmate's heartbeat. It was steady, even, and lulling him to sleep.

"Captain," Killer's voice rang as he nearly slammed open the door trying to wake up Kidd. He paused when he saw a set of eyes look at him in surprise from behind his Captain's sleeping form.

"Uh," Law drawled.

Killer didn't wait for Law to utter any words, but instead drew his weapons, "Get away from my captain at this instant!"

Killer's voice stirred Kidd from his deep sleep. The redhead hadn't expected what he was waking up to. Which was Law, half naked draped across him, and Killer looking like he was out for Law's blood. Law didn't look too thrilled about the situation either. He'd not been expecting to be interrupted by one of Kidd's crewmembers.

"What the fuck are you doing here, you sneaky raccoon!" Kidd yelled pushing Law away from him forcefully.

"Raccoon…" Killer whispered confused glancing from his captain to the intruder and back.

"You know Eustass-ya," Law said as if they were having a normal conversation. "You're base is very easy to break into, considering I only had to open one window to get in here. I would suggest you make the place more secure, especially since you are a particularly heavy sleeper."

Kidd sprang up from the bed when Law reached for him again and yelled; "You did all of that just to tell me that!"

"Hell no," Law giggled as he laid back on the bed, unconcerned with the weapons that were aimed for him. "I did all of that because I wanted to see you."

"Fucking vermin," Kidd snarled, "I should skin you like the animal you are."

"That wouldn't be fun," Law pouted cutely with puppy dog eyes. "Isn't there something better that you want to do with me?"

Kidd's face lit up as red as his hair. "DAMN RACCOON!" He boomed launching himself towards the creepy doctor.

Law yelped and scurried off of the bed. Law swiftly slipped on his boots, swiped his clothes from the floor with a laugh, and ran right past a very stunned Killer. Kidd was quick to chase after him yelling and cursing the whole way.

"He was creepier than I expected." Killer said shocked as he watched the two men disappear out of the hotel. "But he is attracted to Kidd so I guess some level of creepiness is required."

Meanwhile, Law continued to laugh as he ran out of the hotel and took off down the street, hearing Kidd still chasing after him yelling and cursing all the way. Law wasn't running specifically to anywhere. He just thought that it would be more fun to run than to let Kidd catch him right off the bat.

"Stop running and let me kill you!" Kidd shouted.

"That doesn't exactly make me want to stop." Law laughed.

Kidd growled like a feral animal before launching himself at Law and tackling the smaller man to the ground. Law's breath was effectively knocked out of him. Kidd pinned Law's hands above his head with one of his own.

"Got you now, vermin," Kidd huffed triumphantly.

"Couldn't you have been a bit more gentle, Eustass-ya." Law panted. "I'm going to have road burns on my back."

"That's your fault for running." Kidd accused.

Law scowled but asked suggestively while wiggling in Kidd's grip, "What exactly are you going to do with me now, Eustass-ya?"

Shit, Kidd mentally cursed; he hadn't exactly thought that far. He wanted to get Law away from his crewmates while he was saying sexually loaded things, but now he didn't know what to do. Now there wasn't any chance of his crewmate overhearing embarrassing comments, there wasn't any reason to beat Law up. And Kidd didn't really want to hurt the creepy doctor, no matter how infuriating said doctor was.

"Oh," Law smiled, "did I hit a bull's-eye? You really don't know what to do with me now."

"Shut-up," Kidd growled.

"You could just continue where you left off at the bar last night." Law suggested. "As I recall it was going fairly well until we were interrupted."

"Che," Kidd frowned.

"Should I help you?" Law wondered.

"What are you," Kidd's voice broke off as he felt Law tongue trail from his shoulder to his jaw as Law arched. Kidd instantly reacted by pushing back from Law, landing on his butt, starring at him shocked. "Did you just lick me?"

"Hmm," Law giggled, "You're too innocent for your own good Eustass-ya." Law smirked as he crawled back towards Kidd.

"Stay away creepy surgeon." Kidd said trying to push Law away with his boot. Law just moved to the side a bit and continued to crawl into Kidd's lap.

Law sighed, "Are you going to start being honest with yourself anytime soon, or am I going to have to get you drunk every time I want to do something with you?"

Kidd frowned before swallowing thickly and admitting in a whisper, "I don't know." Kidd looked to the side shyly, which was uncharacteristic of his usual self.

Law paused for a moment getting swept away in Kidd's rare expression of cuteness. He smiled softly not in the way which he usually did with hints of mischievousness or malice. He smiled genuinely in a way few people had ever gotten the chance to see. He wrapped his arms around Kidd and nestled himself into the other man resting his head in Kidd's shoulder.

"Let me show you." Law pleaded, "Let me show you how good we can be together, and then if you still don't want me, I'll give you the information you need and you'll never see me again."

Kidd thought. It wasn't normal for him to have to think hard about decisions, most of the time he just went with his gut. It was different this time. It felt somewhat serious. If he agreed to this he knew where it would most likely lead, to having an intimate relationship with Law, to some extent. Would his crewmates still think of him the same if they found out? If they found out he'd been with another man. Killer seemed to think that it wouldn't matter. Was that enough? He had to admit that the offer of being with Law that way, even for just a night, was very tempting. Just thinking about it made his mouth water and blood rush to the lower regions of his body.

But, what if Law was tricking him again? The surgeon had proven himself to be less than trustworthy with his previous actions but he didn't seem outright malicious. Sure the man had gotten him drunk and nearly seduced him, but he seemed not to be doing so with the intent to hurt Kidd. Still, the creepy raccoon couldn't be completely trusted. But, then, neither could Kidd.

"Fine," Kidd conceded with a cunning glint in his eye.

"Good," Law smiled, and got to his feet motioning Kidd to follow, "Follow me." He directed as he started to weave his way back to his apartment where they could have more privacy.

…

Sadly, it was three in the afternoon by the time Sanji woke up. Thus he wasn't surprised that Law had already left. He didn't want to move yet. He had too much to think about. If Krieg was still after him then he needed a plan. And to come up with a plan he needed to know what Krieg had intended to do. Unfortunately, Gin had been very vague in his message and hadn't given away any of Krieg's actual plans. Sanji stretched out on the bed with a yawn and thought. If he needed information then there was only one place to go, and one man to see. He wasn't thrilled about the prospect, but there wasn't much else to go on. He would have to go to Level 5.5 to meet Bon Clay, also known as Mr. 2, to get information. He really didn't want to do that, but beggars can't be choosers.

Sanji heard sound of a door opening; Zoro was up. Sanji sighed but decided that he shouldn't keep his house guest waiting. Sighing, Sanji got out of bed and went into the living room.

"Oi, you're still here." Sanji said addressing Zoro.

"Was I supposed to leave?" Zoro asked turning toward the blonde.

"No," Sanji smiled lighting his first cigarette of the day. "I just figured you would. You want some breakfast?"

"It's like three o clock." Zoro deadpanned.

"So?" Sanji shrugged. "We just woke up so breakfast sounds good."

"Whatever, shit-cook," Zoro said following Sanji to the kitchen.

The cook started to gather his ingredients and lit the stove top. Zoro watched him in amusement. The blonde moved with ease and grace around the kitchen. It reminded Zoro of a dance or a combination attack. Each move led easily to the next one without any break or stop in between as if everything fit perfectly together. Zoro vaguely wondered if this was how he looked while training or using his swords. Perfectly in element; like Sanji was with cooking. Sanji glanced over, and caught him starring, and smirked.

"Do you like what you see?" Sanji asked grinning.

Zoro turned away. He was certainly interested in the blonde, but words weren't Zoro's strong suit. And just saying to so simply, wasn't something he was capable of doing. Sanji turned back to his cooking and Zoro took the opportunity to observe the cook more closely. Without a shirt hindering his view Zoro could see the lean muscles that he'd been able to feel the first night he'd met the blonde. Zoro traced Sanji's spine with his eyes to the cook's thin hips that made Zoro's mouth water almost as much as the scents of the food cooking. From there his eyes traveled down Sanji long legs that seemed to go on for hours. Zoro remembered the kicks that those legs were capable of dealing.

Sanji turned and Zoro's eyes snapped back up to the cook's face. "What?" Sanji asked not knowing exactly why the swordsman was staring at him. He could feel Zoro's eyes on him while he was cooking.

"Nothing,"

"Ok, you want to grab us two plates from that cupboard behind you?" Sanji asked.

Zoro grabbed the plates and handed them to Sanji who place a tamagoyaki on each and handed one back to the green haired man. They ate silently standing in the kitchen. And even though Zoro didn't let it show, Sanji was sure that the Marimo thought his cooking was fantastic. As they finished Sanji started to wash the dishes that were used. Zoro needing something to do, started to dry the dishes.

"Are you really going to cook for all of us?" Zoro questioned casually. "I mean Luffy and our crew."

"Yeah," Sanji nodded, "I'm a man of my word. I promised I would cook for you guys, plus it's nice to cook for new people. What do you guys like?"

"We eat a lot of meat and sea food mostly, but I wouldn't worry about the menu too much; Luffy will eat anything. I swear that kid can eat enough to feed a small village and still have room to spare." Zoro chuckled.

"Is that so," Sanji smiled. "How did Luffy end up being the Captain?"

"He might not look like much and he might act like some naïve brat, but he's strong." Zoro explained while grinning, "We all have a dream. But Luffy's the one who brought us together. He has something about him the draws people to him. He wants to achieve his dream, and we want to achieve ours. He just gives us the opportunity to do so and to have others to depend on. He gave us nakama; so we follow him."

"I see," Sanji replied, "Sorry, but I still don't plan to join a pirate crew anytime soon."

"You will though." Zoro retorted. "None of us said yes the first time Luffy asked, but we all eventually joined. If Luffy thinks you're joining the crew; then you're joining the crew."

Sanji rolled his eyes, "Just keep telling yourself that, Marimo."

"No," Zoro disagreed as he pushed Sanji's locks out of his eye, "You'll become our nakama, just you wait."

Sanji sighed. "You're very confident aren't you?"

"Yep," Zoro affirmed and the two feel into an awkward silence. Sanji and Zoro's minds were focused on the conversation last night. They focused on Krieg, and Gin's warning. "Do you really not have a plan for dealing with Krieg?"

"I'm not an idiot." Sanji glared at Zoro while he spoke. "I need more information before I make a move though. I'm going to see an acquaintance of mine later tonight. He's an informant of sorts. If anyone can get me information on Krieg's plans it's him."

"Where exactly are you meeting this informant of yours?" Zoro queried.

"At a club," Sanji answered vaguely. He really didn't want to tell Zoro about Level 5.5. Seeing as it was a very popular Okama hangout; Sanji didn't exactly want ANYONE, let alone the Marimo, knowing that he went there at all. It was Law's fault he even ended up there in the first place. And personally Sanji hated the place.

Zoro smirked knowing that the blonde was hiding something, "What kind of club is it shit-cook?" He asked watching an embarrassed blush rise to shade the cook's face.

Sanji ground his teeth and mumbled, "It's an okama club."

Zoro burst out in laughter, "Wow, Ero-cook, I didn't know you liked to dress up."

"I don't!" Sanji exclaimed angry and embarrassed. "I hate that place. It's Law's fault he dragged me there once and got me very, extremely drunk. I blacked out I can't even remember anything that happened!" He yelled angrily.

"So you did wear a dress!" Zoro accused before laughing.

"Ugh," Sanji roared, "I was intoxicated!" Zoro laughed harder so Sanji kicked him in the shin. "Shut the fuck up you fucking Marimo! It's Law's fault!"

"Stupid Ero-cook," Zoro yelled holding his shin and quelling his laughter while starring at Sanji's angry and pouting face. "That's it; I'm going to the club with you."

"What?!" Sanji cried, "No, you are not going with me. No way in hell I'm letting you come!"

"Then try to stop me love-cook." Zoro challenged.

"Bring it on moss-head!"

"Swirly-Brow!"

"Shit-swordsman!"

"Shit-cook!"

…

The sun was setting when Ace started toward Marco's place. All he could think about was Sabo and what killing the older blonde would mean for his brother. Ace had never killed anyone, and had never thought he would have to. Knowing what he would have to do made it feel like a bucket of worms was emptied into his gut. Some part of him knew that he'd never forgive himself for killing someone, but the possibility of having his family all together again overshadowed that knowledge.

He reached the apartment complex that Marco lived at a quickly located the door he remembered leaving from the day before. He heard nothing from the apartment and worried that Marco wasn't home. He hadn't exactly been able to contact the blonde beforehand. He awkwardly knocked on the door.

"One minute, yoi," Blurted the voice from inside. Ace sighed with relief and soon the door opened to reveal the man with hair reminiscent of a tropical fruit. "Oh, Ace," Marco smiled, "I was hoping you would come."

"Eh," Ace asked with surprise, "You were?"

"Of course," Marco affirmed grabbing his wallet and keys from the table by the door before closing the door behind him. "There's someplace I wanted to take you, yoi" Marco paused before adding, "I know my actions earlier today must have gotten you into trouble. I wanted to make up for it or at least try to, yoi."

"You don't have to do that." Ace said, all while being unable to forget why he was here.

"I insist," Marco argued, "Now let's go, yoi."

Marco directed Ace through the streets silently but with a smile. Ace couldn't help but wonder what exactly it was that the blonde was planning to do. It was obvious that the blonde had felt guilty over what had happened and its consequences. But, Ace hadn't been expecting for the blonde to try to make up for it. After all Marco trying to defend him was possibly the nicest thing anyone had ever done for him.

"So, are you going to tell me where we're going?" Ace asked after they'd passed as few streets. Really he just wanted to end the weird silence and didn't know what else to ask.

"Nope," Marco answered cheerfully, "It's a surprise, yoi. You'll just have to wait to find out."

"I see." Ace sighed. "I'm not really one for surprises."

"Don't worry, yoi," Marco assured, "you'll like this one."

They passed a few more streets in silence before turning right. Upon doing which Ace's sight was filled with bright blue. The streets in front of them were filled with light blue hanging lanterns with a strange darker blue symbol on it. It looked like a cross with a crescent pointing upwards in front of it. The lanterns lit up the whole area making it look otherworldly. It was beautiful, and Ace's breath caught at the sight. How had he never seen this place?

"It's beautiful." Ace gasped.

"I'm glad you like it, yoi," Marco whispered. As he spoke he turned toward Ace, giving the younger man a view of his muscled chest that was reveal because of his open shirt.

"Your tattoo," Ace realized, "It matches the lanterns."

"That's because this is my territory, you." Marco explained. "This mark is Whitebeard's mark, Oyaji's mark. It's my pride. As a commander I'm in charge of an area in Oyaji's domain. This is it. The people here all know me. I try to do everything I can to make this place better, yoi. They started hanging these a few years back. They said it was their way of showing me how much they appreciated everything."

"Oh," Ace gulped. And I'm here to kill you; he couldn't help but think guiltily. "Why are they blue?"

Marco chuckled and summoned the phoenixes flames to his hand. "The blue fire is sort of my trademark at this point, yoi."

"Right," Ace nodded, still wondering what exactly the blue flames originated from. "This whole place is yours?"

"Yes," Marco replied and then gave Ace's wrist a small tug. "Come on there's more."

Marco led him through the streets by the hand like one would a child. Not that Ace could blame him as he couldn't stop staring at the bright lanterns. Ace attention was snapped away though by the passersby who would often call out Marco's name as they passed. Ace had thought Marco was joking when he said everyone knew him here, but he apparently was not.

"Marco-nii, Macro-nii," cried a young girl who ran up to them and attached herself to Marco's leg.

"Ah, Leila!" Marco exclaimed happily sweeping the child into his arms. "What are you doing out so late? Your Oka-san will be worried, yoi."

"No she won't!" Leila retorted. "She thinks I'm asleep!" She leaned close to Marco's ear a whispered just loudly enough for him and Ace to hear. "I snuck out through the window."

"It's not kind to trick your mom like that." Marco scolded.

"Aw, but sleeping isn't any fun! And it's still early." Leila reasoned.

"Still, do me a favor and head back home, please, yoi." Marco pleaded setting the child back on her feet.

"If I do, will let me see the bird again soon?" The girl offered.

"Fine, soon," Marco promised and the girl smiled, nodded, and headed back towards home.

"You're good with children." Ace commented with a smile.

"You think so? Well, I guess I learned from taking care of all my siblings, yoi." Marco estimated.

"Yeah," Ace said thinking of Luffy. "What did she mean by the bird? Do you have a pet?"

"No," Marco negated. "She's talking about my devil's fruit ability."

"The one you won't tell me about." Ace pouted and Marco laughed.

"No, the other one," he replied sarcastically earning a grin from Ace. "Look, I promise I'll tell you what it is, hell I'll even show you it someday, yoi."

"You make a lot of promises." Ace commented.

"That's because I know how to keep them, yoi." Marco stated. "Let's keep moving, your surprise is probably waiting on us."

"Waiting on us?" Ace queried with a smirk. "Did you buy me a puppy?"

"Nope, I did better that that, yoi." Marco bragged."Come on we're only a few shops away."

"Is it a pony?" Ace asked as the two started walking again. Marco was truthful they only went a few shops further before coming to a halt in front of a diner. "You're treating me to dinner?"

"Would you stop guessing and just go in, yoi?"

"Fine, fine," Ace conceded and entered the establishment anxiously. He barely got in the door before a familiar voice called out.

"ACE!"

"Luffy?"

…

It was nearly midnight when Sanji and Zoro made it to Level 5.5. Sanji was still seething the whole time that the Marimo insisted to come with him. In the end the Marimo had threatened to tell his crew that Sanji had worn a dress. Sanji was not about to let that happen. He would never live it down if they found out.

"I swear to God if you ever tell anyone about this, I'll kill you." Sanji reminded.

"Whatever you say, shit-cook." Zoro responded nonchalantly.

"Just shut up," Sanji snapped, "Let's go and get this over with as quickly as possible."

…

_**Hey everyone thank you for all of your support. My computer is still acting strange sometimes but at least my writer's block is gone. Now I know where the story is heading. I would like to thank Kisuminight, anonymous72, Hanabi Angel Ai, Michikuni Mayu, Snoopypompom, Anon, and Guest for reviewing. I will warn everyone of this chapter 10 will be rated MA. As in Mature Audiences only. Read it, when it comes out, at your own risk.**_

_**-LPC**_


	10. Chapter 10

Kidd didn't notice much about Law's house on the way in his was a bit distracted by the olive skinned man currently taking his breath away. Law was scratching him with his nails as he tried to remove Kidd clothes while their lips remained locked. Law's mouth and tongue were hot as he led Kidd toward his bedroom. When Law felt the doorknob press into his back and dropped one of his hands to open turn it. Kidd trailed his hands down Law's sides caressing his sculpted hips and gripping him under his buttocks and thighs to lift Law off of his feet and hold him to Kidd's chest.

From his new higher vantage point Law cupped Kidd's face and tilted it upwards so he could claim the redhead's mouth. Kidd walked into the room still holding Law against him before throwing the raven haired man down onto his own comfy bed. Kidd slid out of his furry coat and it landed harshly on the floor. Law's mouth watered and he licked his lips as the coat no longer obscured his view of Kidd's heavily muscled chest. Kidd's chest had a few large scars, no doubt battle wounds. The blood in Law's body traveled towards his groin as he imagined running his tongue over those scars. Law lay back on the bed enjoying the view as he kicked off his boots that fell heavily on the floor. Kidd also stepped out of his shoes before he crawled onto the bed and on top of Law.

Law spread his legs so that Kidd could settle in between them. They still both wore pants. As Kidd slid up Law's body and their budding arousals rubbed against each other, both men groaned at the friction. Law tangled his hands into Kidd messy red lock and ground his hips against Kidd's bringing their arousals together again and again making his companion groan louder.

Kidd grabbed Law's short raven hair and tugged on it turning the surgeon's face toward him again. Law's smirk was as cunning as ever even as blood colored his cheeks pink. The redhead leaned forward again and reconnected their lips. Law immediately gave way to Kidd's tongue allowing the other man to enter his mouth. Kidd kissed Law feverishly, as if he was stealing the raven's breath away. Even though Law would normally battle for dominance, he decided to let the redhead control the situation; this time. He would make sure that he got his eventually.

Kidd traced the depths of Law's mouth while he slid a hand down the doctor's chest. His hand stopped at Law's nipple pinching and rubbing it until it became erect. Law moaned shamelessly and arched his back bringing his groin to grind against Kidd's once more. The action sent tremors down Law's spine and his eyes widened at the heat that was become uncomfortable trapped in his restrictive pants.

"Ah," Law gasped breaking the kiss leaving a line of saliva from his to Kidd's lips.

Kidd took the opportunity to force Law to turn his head with a tug of the man's hair. The motion gave Kidd access to the man's neck. Law grimaced at the pain of his hair being pulled. Kidd made up for the pain he inflicted by nipping gently at Law's ear before extending his tongue to lick Law's earlobe and the inside of his ear. Law squirmed at the wet feeling. Kidd moved his hand that was at Law's nipple further down until it was at Law's waist. Law keened and bucked his hips as Kidd stroked his member through the jeans of his pants.

"You're already excited, pervy surgeon." Kidd teased sucking at the skin on Law's neck.

"You're saying you're not?" Law asked reaching one hand down to grab Kidd's erection.

"Bastard," Kidd growled.

Kidd pushed Law back onto the bed and pulled away a bit. His hand left Law's arousal to quickly undo the buckle and zipper of Law's jeans. Law lifted his hips to assist Kidd in removing the obstructive piece of clothing from his body. Kidd removed Law's pants and boxers all in one go leaving his bare beneath the redhead. Kidd then took off his own pants as well and settled again between Law's legs. Both men panted taking in the view of one another now that clothing was no longer hindering their view.

"See," Law said looking at Kidd's erect member, "you're excited as well."

"Shut up," Kidd groaned rolling his eyes.

Law wrapped his legs around Kidd's waist bringing their now nude erections against each other causing both men to shudder and groan at the friction. Kidd reattached his mouth to Law's and began to thrust his hips in rhythm rubbing their arousals together again and again making Law tremble beneath him. The waves of pleasure rolled over him in time with Kidd's movements as Kidd kept exploring his mouth. Law pushed Kidd away a bit to disconnect their lips.

"Stop fooling around with me," Law said panting, "Wouldn't you rather be inside me?"

Kidd blushed feverishly. He hadn't expected the doctor to give into him so easily. But, then anxiety snuck up on him, "What if I do it wrong and hurt you?"

Law laughed, "I didn't take you for the careful and caring type, Eustass-ya." Kidd growled lowly. "Just take me." Law stated. "I bet you like to take people roughly, make them cry out." He hypothesized. "That's fine. I don't mind, just stop teasing me."

Kidd smiled like a maniac and leaned down to whisper in Law's ear, "I'm going to make you scream my name and make you beg me to do it harder."

"Just try, Eustass-ya," Law smirked.

"Lube," Kidd asked.

"Top drawer on the left nightstand."

…

The club stank of strong and gross perfume. A smell Sanji personally hated which is why he wore such subtle cologne. Sanji's face contorted in disgust as he looked at the crowd already gathered at the bar. Zoro smirked taking in the cook's disturbed expression with amusement.

"How bad could it be shit-cook?" Zoro mocked.

"You have no idea." Sanji grumbled.

"Sanji!" Called a high pitched voice, although it was clearly male. It made Sanji's skin crawl.

A man wearing heavy make-up dressed as what Zoro could only describe as a crossbreed between a swan and a ballerina launched himself at the tense blonde. The man seemed overjoyed at the blonde's presence, but said blonde's eyes glinted murderously. Zoro's smile widened. Just as the man intruded into Sanji personal space too much the blonde expertly maneuvered to deliver a destructive upwards kick to the man's stomach that sent him flying into the ceiling. Zoro nearly exploded with laughter.

"Didn't I tell you not to fucking do that?!" Sanji yelled as gravity sent the man colliding to the floor.

"OW, Sanji, I couldn't help myself. You never come here so I hardly ever see you." Bon clay wined sadly while crying.

"And for good reason!" Sanji exclaimed still fuming.

"If this is how you treat your friends I can't wait to see how you treat your enemies." Zoro chuckled.

"Shut up, stupid Marimo." Sanji grumbled.

"Oh, who's this Sanji?" Bon asked.

"This moss-head is Zoro." Sanji explained with a shrug. "He insisted on following me here for no reason."

"Maybe, I wanted to see you in a dress." Zoro whispered only loud enough for Sanji to hear.

"I'll kill you!" Sanji screamed causing Bon to back away quickly for his own safety. Sanji swung his left leg in a ferocious kick aiming for Zoro's side, but Zoro blocked it with the hilt of one of his swords.

"I'd like to see you try." Zoro challenged drawing his swords. Sanji settled into a fighting stance only to have Bon interrupt before the situation escalated.

"You two are so cute." Bon commented making both men freeze. "You two are like the main characters in a romantic comedy. So obviously attracted to each other and yet unwilling to admit to it. Cute~"

Without a word, silent as the dead of night both of the men's heads turned toward the ballerina man. Sanji and Zoro lashed out at the same time, completely in tune with each other. Sanji with a foot, and Zoro with the back of a sword; they sent Bon sprawling across the bar before colliding with the wall on the opposite side.

"Don't say shit like that!" They both boomed menacingly.

"Ow," Bon cried, "that wasn't nice!"

"Be quiet!" Sanji exclaimed.

"Why did you even come here?" Bon asked. "Did you come here just to beat me up? You wouldn't come here unless you needed something."

Sanji was quiet for a bit as he waited for Bon Clay to recover. "I came here for information." He said taking out a cigarette and leaning a bit to one side looking tantalizing to Zoro. "I need you to tell what Krieg's been up to as of late."

"That guy again," Bon mumbled. "Is he still after you?"

"Apparently," Sanji sighed, "Gin came and told Law about it."

"I don't trust that man." Bon clay said taking a seat at the bar. "You can never trust someone who claims to be loyal to more than one person."

Sanji was quiet as he and Zoro came to sit at the bar with Bon. Zoro looked at Sanji with curiosity and a strange feeling settled in his chest. It was akin to protectiveness or maybe possessiveness and sadness and longing. What wouldn't he give to snatch that cigarette out of the cook's lips and replace it with his own lips? He wanted to comfort the cook in a way their current relationship wouldn't support. Sanji let out a long breath and caught Zoro's gaze. He could almost swear that he saw a similar longing in the intriguing oceanic blues of the man's eyes.

"Sanji," Bon Clay asked with a smirk, "what are you planning?"

"I'm going to repay Krieg in full for trying to kill me." Sanji grinned like a cunning cat.

"So that's why you've been spending all that time at Queen Ivankou's gym. You hate that place just as much as you hate it here. I was wondering why you would miss work to spend time there. You've been training to get revenge." Bon Clay laughed whole heartedly. "I would hate to be Krieg and his crew when you catch up to him."

"So do you know what he's been up to?" Sanji asked smiling.

"No," Bon shook his head, "Unfortunately, I do not. But I'll find out." Bon promised. "Give me a few days and I'll get you all the information you need to take down that asshole."

Sanji nodded and Zoro and him rose to leave, "I hope to hear from you soon then."

Bon caught Sanji arm a whispered into his ear quietly so that Zoro couldn't hear, "Don't let that guy get away, Sanji. By the way you two act around each other, I know he'll be good for you. Don't let Krieg and Gin make you give up on trusting people."

Sanji's eyes widened before he looked to the floor. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Bon nodded and waved goodbye as the two other men left the bar.

As the door closed behind them; both men deeply inhaled the cool night's air. Sanji crushed his spent cigarette beneath the toe of one of his shoes. Sanji thought about what Bon had said. Would Zoro really be good for him? He would confess that the man was extraordinarily attractive; like a Grecian god. But, Sanji normally leaned towards women. Truthfully the only male he'd ever taken to bed was Law and that was only because of shared curiosity and because both of them trusted each other the most. Gin and him had kissed a handful of times but hadn't taken it any farther before Krieg interfered.

Sanji remembered the way Zoro had been looking at him in the bar. That look had made his heart flutter. The swordsman could definitely affect him. Sanji remembered how the swordsman's lips and body felt against his. How it made him forget his reservations. He wanted that.

"So, what do we do now, shit-cook?" Zoro asked stirring Sanji from his tumultuous thoughts.

"Nothing, for tonight anyway," Sanji stated, "we can't really do any more until we know what Krieg's up to. We'll have to wait until Bon gives us the information."

"And then you're going to get revenge." Zoro questioned as the two started walking.

"Exactly," Sanji smirked confidently back at Zoro.

"I could help with that." Zoro offered. "And so could everyone else."

Sanji sighed and looked searchingly at Zoro, "Why? Do you guys want me to join the crew that badly?"

Zoro didn't exactly know what to say. Of course they wanted Sanji to join the crew, but that wasn't exactly the reason why he wanted to help. "What's so wrong with joining our crew?" Zoro asked and Sanji scoffed. "You obviously don't think that the world is unchangeable or you wouldn't try to help people. So why not join us."

"I can fight my own battles." Sanji stated blankly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Zoro questioned. "We can all fight our own battles, joining a crew doesn't mean that you can't. It means you don't have to fight your battles alone. We didn't join the crew because we couldn't fight for ourselves. We joined because it's nice to have people that will stand beside you while you fight."

The two men stood facing each other. Zoro couldn't think of what else to say to convince the cook to let them help. Sanji didn't know what to think. He still didn't want to join the crew. He had too many people counting of him to just walk away to follow some probably unattainable dream. Once he defeated Krieg he'd hoped his life would just go back to normal. He'd go back to work at the Baratie and hanging out with Law. If he joined a pirate crew then that would be highly unlikely. Was he just being stubborn?

"I won't join your crew." Sanji stated, "But I keep my promises. Bring your crewmates to my house tomorrow. I'll cook for everyone and maybe," Sanji spoke with emphasis, "I think about your offer."

"Stubborn bastard," Zoro muttered with a smirk. "Fine have it your way, but you'll join us eventually." He turned and began to walk away.

"Oh," Sanji teased, "you're not going to follow me home again?"

"Che," Zoro snorted, "I've got someone I have to check up on." Zoro said thinking about Ace, whom he shared a place with. He figured that his raven haired friend would be worried after he hadn't come home for a few days. He was walking away when Sanji stepped forward and grabbed his wrist.

Zoro frowned as Sanji stepped closer invading his personal space. Zoro didn't know what the cook was up to but he'd better back off a bit. Because currently all Zoro was thinking about was reaching out and pressing their lips together. This is why he was surprised when Sanji did it for him. Sanji pressed his lips to the swordsman's and let his eyes slip closed as the other man started to respond. Sanji slipped his hands into Zoro's short, rough, green hair and Zoro's arms wrapped themselves around Sanji's waist holding the other man flush against him. He gently nipped at Sanji's lip to ask for entrance. Sanji opened his mouth to let Zoro's tongue slip inside.

Sanji let out a soft moan as their tongues fought for dominance. Zoro smiled against Sanji lips at the sound the cook made. Sanji's eyes fluttered when Zoro's tongue ran along his. He shivered when Zoro traced his teeth. Sanji countered by curling his tongue so it could lick up Zoro's. Zoro groaned and it was Sanji's turn to smile. They kept kissing, kept holding each other, kept exploring each others mouths until their breath ran short and made them part.

Sanji laid his forehead in the crook of Zoro's neck. "Be safe," he breathed before stepping back as a blush warmed his face.

"I will be," Zoro assured before place one more, chaste kiss on the blonde's lips that left both men smiling as they parted ways.

…

"Luffy, what are you doing here?" Ace nearly fell backwards as Luffy collided with him entangling him within his rubbery limbs.

"Ace, I didn't know you would be here." Luffy laughed. "Pineapple-guy told me to be here." Luffy spotted Marco, who was glaring at him for the nickname and greeted him. "Hi, pineapple-guy.

"Hello, and my name is Marco, yoi. I would prefer that you call me by it." Marco reminded relaxing.

"Wari, wari," Luffy apologized released Ace. "Did you bring Ace here?"

"Yes, I heard that you were not able to see each other much, so I thought you two should see each other for a while, yoi." Marco stated.

Luffy frowned in almost a pout. "Ace, are you okay?"

Ace shook himself a bit to clear his head of the confusion as he began to understand the situation. Marco had wanted to make up for getting him into trouble yesterday. Ace didn't think that Marco would do so by getting him the one thing he wanted most; time with Luffy.

"Sorry," Ace mumbled, "Yeah I'm fine Luffy. Sorry I haven't been able to come see you. Gramps has started to post a guard near the Going Merry and your house. So, I couldn't come near you." Ace explained sadly.

"Gramps is so annoying," Luffy complained. "Why is he trying to keep you away? We're brothers we should be able to see each other."

Marco's eyebrows rose. Luffy seemed to be a bit out of the loop on things concerning Ace. Marco wondered if the younger brother knew what Ace was doing for work or why. He doubted it. Ace seemed to be overprotective of his brother. Marco frowned. Ace was trying to hide everything from his brother and deal with it all himself. Marco understood the sentiment of wanting to protect one's family, but Ace facing everything alone probably wasn't in the boy's best interest. Still, if Ace didn't want to concern Luffy then he wouldn't intervene. He would just try to be there for Ace instead.

"He's just trying to protect you." Ace told Luffy.

"From what?" Luffy asked childishly, "I don't need to be protected from you."

"Gramps thinks so though." Ace reminded.

"But he's wrong!" Luffy argued. "You won't hurt me. You're my brother."

"I swear sometimes talking with you is like talking to a brick wall." Ace sighed. "So how did the fight with Buggy go?"

"Great!" Luffy exclaimed happily forgetting about the previous topic of conversation. "We beat the crap out of them! Oh, Ace, we finally found a cook!"

"Really?" Ace asked, thankful that the topic changed. "That's great Luffy. What's he like?"

"He's blonde, and he's so cool. He can fight with Zoro evenly. And he promised to cook for us. And he's a Celestial Dragon!" Ace tense at this and Marco's eyes widened. "But he doesn't care about the collars. He's super cool." Luffy explained excitedly.

"Luffy," Ace warned, "Celestial Dragons are dangerous. This guy could kill you and get away with it easily."

"But he won't," Luffy said simply. "Zoro thinks he's okay and so do I. He's not going to hurt anyone. He's a good guy."

"Zoro thinks so too." Ace wondered. "I guess you guys wouldn't both be wrong. You sometimes trust too easily but Zoro can normally see right through people."

"Yup," Luffy caught sight of a waitress passing by with a steak and his mouth started to water. "Meat."

Marco chuckled, "How about we eat some food, yoi?"

"YES!" Luffy yelled rushing over to a table and immediately picking up a menu as he started to drool.

Ace felt that he should warn Marco, "Just so you know, Luffy is kind of a glutton. He'll eat you out of house and home."

"Don't worry about it, yoi." Marco responded ruffling Ace's hair. "Let's just enjoy dinner."

"Sure," Ace conceded as they went over to the table and took their seats.

The bell on the door chimed someone's entrance and soon a gruff and disgusted voice was heard like nails on a chalkboard. It made Ace look at the table ashamed, Luffy's eyes burn with fury, and Marco raise from his seat.

"Gross!" A young woman proclaimed as she spotted Ace's iron collar from across the room. "What's an untouchable doing here? Those dreadful creatures shouldn't even be allowed into public places! Get that thing out of here!" She commanded as everyone caught sight of her golden collar. Thankfully, it didn't have a stone. The woman was not a Celestial Dragon, which was good because if she was Marco wouldn't have been able to do anything.

Marco stepped to stand in front of Ace, who stayed seated, and placed a hand on his own hip as he spoke. "I think I would much more prefer it if you left, yoi."

"Ha," the woman laughed, "who do you think you are if you hadn't noticed I don't take orders from the lower castes."

"Didn't you notice the lanterns?" Marco asked in a sneer. "Castes don't matter here, yoi."

"Marco, it's fine I'll just," Ace began before Marco placed a hand on his shoulder.

"No, you'll stay." He insisted. "Like I said this territory belongs to Whitebeard, castes don't matter here, yoi."

"I beg to differ." The woman said, "If that thing doesn't leave this instant I'll get the marines."

Ace looked around the room frantic while Luffy watched with unabated interest. Ace noticed something as he looked at the patrons of the diner. Every single person was smiling proudly and looking at Marco. The patrons seemed at ease with complete confidence in Marco.

"They won't come here, even if you tell them what happened, yoi." Marco said with confidence. "This is a yonko's territory and not just any yonko, but The Strongest Man alive. I'm Marco the Phoenix. I govern this section of the territory, yoi. If I say he stays and that you have to leave then that's what's going to happen, yoi."

"I don't believe you." The woman said holding her head high that caused the crowd to start laughing.

"Look miss," said an older man in the crowd, "We don't take bigots kindly here. Marco and Whitebeard are the best things that ever happened to us. We don't care that your collar is gold and his is silver; we'll listen to him over you any day of the week."

The woman screamed in frustration and lashed out to knock a table over. "Get that thing to leave!"

"You're the one who needs to leave, yoi." Marco said as he summoned his powers to the surface and his arms shifted to wings.

"Whoa!" Luffy exclaimed, "Super cool!"

Ace's breath caught again, every time Marco revealed those flames, or more of his powers Ace couldn't help but lose the ability to breath. Those blue flamed wings couldn't have been more beautiful. Ace wanted to reach out and touch them, feel them, stoke them. Marco looked otherworldly, powerful, and beautiful. Ace swallowed thickly.

The woman screamed, "What are you?"

"Didn't you hear me, yoi?" Marco asked curling his wings around him schooling his face to boredom. "I'm Marco the Phoenix."

The woman screamed again and ran from the building. The patron and workers at the diner all burst out laughing as Marco dispersed his flames. He returned to the table after being patted on the back and thanked by some patrons and servers.

"You're so awesome." Luffy bubbled. "Will you join my crew?"

Marco laughed, "No way, my crew is my family, yoi. I'll never leave Whitebeard. I'm the first mate, yoi."

"Aw," Luffy whined, "but you're so cool."

"Luffy!" Ace chided before turning towards Marco. "Your devil's fruit; it's the phoenix phoenix no mi. You're literally a phoenix." Ace sighed. "I should have known that; it's your name for god's sake. I guess that explains the fire."

"That's right, yoi" Marco confirmed.

"That's kind of cool." Ace admitted and Marco smiled.

"Now then, shall we eat?" Marco asked

"YES!" Luffy yelled.

…

Sanji was a few blocks from Mariejiose when Gin stepped out from an alley and into his path. He came to a stop and put his cigarette out with his shoe. He wasn't sure if he should greet the man or beat the crap out of him. Gin had betrayed him, and made sure Law made it in time to save him. He warned him, but still worked with the man trying to kill him. So, he waited for Gin to make the first move.

"You don't look happy to see me." Gin commented. "But I guess that's to be expected." Gin came closer to the blonde as Sanji tried to stare blankly ahead ignoring the man altogether. "Sanji," Gin breathed caressing Sanji's cheek with his hand. He ran his thumb over Sanji's high cheekbones. "Say something." Gin pled.

"What do you want me to say?" Sanji ground out through his teeth while glaring into Gin's eyes.

Gin leaned in and wrapped his arms around the blonde who immediately tensed. Gin threaded the fingers of one hand through the silky strands of Sanji's hair while the other arm curled around the man's waist. "That you forgive me." Gin whispered into Sanji's ear. "That you still care about me." Gin brought his hand back to Sanji face and tilted his jaw. Gin leaned in to place a kiss on Sanji's lips when he was roughly pushed away.

"No!" Sanji snarled. "You don't get to do that anymore! You lost that right when you left me in a burning building."

"I didn't have any other choice!" Gin argued.

"No, you did have a choice." Sanji countered, "You could've helped me. You could've stopped them from trying to kill me. Do you think that I'll really just let you back into my life after everything that's happened?"

"I made sure you lived. And I warned you." Gin retorted.

"Only because you won't choose a side," Sanji protested. "You said that you cared about me, but you wouldn't fight your crew to help me." Sanji paused. "I forgive you." Sanji said. "But I won't care about you anymore. I can't." Sanji brushed by Gin heading again towards his house. "Thank you, for warning me. This time, I'll be prepared."

…

After having eaten their fill, and Marco discovering that Ace's narcolepsy was most active during mealtimes; the boy had fallen asleep in the middle of eating multiple times, the trio left the diner and exited onto the city streets once more. Luffy patted his stomach with contentment with a large smile on his face.

"Thank you for the meal, bird-guy." He beamed.

"My name is Marco, yoi." Marco asserted.

"Wari, wari," Luffy apologized. "Ace, I'll you again soon right? Bird-guy can just arrange it anytime we want to see each other right?"

"I guess," Ace supposed turning to Marco in question "Is that alright?"

"Of course," Marco nodded.

"Good," Luffy piped. "See you soon then." He said before taking off in a jog while waving at the two men he left behind.

Marco and Ace stood in silence for a bit and watched the boy disappear around a corner. The awkwardness of the moment sunk in while Ace tried to think of the words to adequate words to convey what he was feeling, but found none. No words could capture how happy he was to be able to see Luffy. A small blush crept up his face as he stared at his feet.

"Thank you," he murmured barely above a whisper.

"It's no problem." Marco reassured. "Let's start heading back. It's getting to be late, yoi."

Ace nodded, but as Marco turned to lead the way he had the undeniable urge that he decided to follow. Marco was surprised when he felt Ace intertwine his hand with Marco's. Marco first looked at their now joined hands and then at Ace's shaded face. Marco stopped walking and turned to face Ace with a concerned frown.

Marco sighed and began to speak, "Ace, don't,"

"I know," Ace gently interjected, "You probably think this is stupid or a bad idea, but no one has ever stood up for me like that besides my brothers and my best friend."

"You want to be with me because I'm not an asshole, yoi?" Marco asked with a bland expression although his eyes remained concerned. "That's not a good reason, Ace. You barely know me, yoi."

"But I can get to know you." Ace argued refusing to let go of the older man's hand. "You're the first person I've been attracted to that doesn't care about caste. That doesn't treat me like I'm some disgusting creature that shouldn't have been born."

"Ace, I don't think us becoming involved like that would be a good idea." Marco said gently pulling his hand out of Ace's.

"Why?" Ace protested latching onto the hem of Marco's shirt. "Is it because I'm not good enough? Or is it because I work for Blackbeard?" Ace's voice rose as his eyes started to tear up, although he prevented the tears from falling. "Please can't we just try?"

Marco sighed and reached to place one hand on Ace's cheek making sure their eyes met. "Ace, there is nothing wrong with you and I don't care about Blackbeard. But, we can't be together, yoi. I can't let that happen. You are far too young for me, yoi."

Ace blinked surprised, "That's your reason! What you're like thirty five? Who cares?"

Marco snorted and rolled his eyes, "You have no idea how old I am, yoi." He took at step backwards and crossed his arms.

Ace frowned, "You can't be older than forty."

Marco raised his eyebrows and stated one of the facts he tried most to hide from people with the most bored expression he could muster, "I'm seventy four years old, yoi."

Ace's eyes widened to the size of saucers and froze while asking, "How?"

Marco's lips became a thin line, "I ate the phoenix phoenix no mi when I was thirty three, since then I haven't aged a day, yoi."

Ace pursed his lips, "So what? It doesn't matter."

"Really, Ace," Marco said giving Ace a doubtful look, "I'm easily three times your age, yoi. We cannot be romantically involved, yoi."

Ace pouted. "But I want to be with you."

"Sometimes what you want isn't good for you, yoi," Marco said wisely. "I want to help you, and if I became romantic with you it would feel wrong, yoi. It would be like taking advantage of your trust. I can't be with you and not feel guilty, yoi. I'm sorry."

Ace let go of Marco's shirt and stared at the ground. "I can't convince you otherwise?"

"No." Marco replied knowing that if he gave into Ace that he would regret it. Ace was beautiful in his opinion, but he couldn't give into that temptation. It just wouldn't feel right. The young man meant something to him, but he couldn't take it any further than friendship and keep his mind guilt free. He was trying to help Ace escape from Blackbeard. If he started to have a relationship with Ace, it would almost be like doing what Blackbeard was. It would be like using Ace. He wasn't like Blackbeard. He didn't use people. And becoming romantic with Ace would feel like he was.

Ace grit his teeth. Was it better like this? He was attracted to the older man and how secure he felt with the blonde around. He liked the way Marco treated him, and he wanted more. He wanted Marco to love him and hold him and cherish him and keep him safe. He heart beat strangely when the older man was around.

But he was also supposed to kill the older man. Ace suddenly returned to the reality of why he was with the blonde. He'd come tonight to get closer to the blonde so that he could obtain his trust and later kill him to save Sabo. Ace had let himself get swept off his feet with what the older man did for him and forgot what he was tasked to do. He was beginning to have feelings for the older man; which was something he couldn't let happen. He took a large breath and sealed the slowly blooming emotions for the blonde deep inside himself.

"Sorry," Ace muttered.

"It's alright, yoi," Marco said, "Do you want me to walk you back to the East District?"

"No, I'll be fine."

"Alright, yoi." Marco said awkwardly knowing he must have upset the young man a bit and that he should most likely keep his distance for a while. "Goodnight Ace." He said before turning and leaving.

"Night," Ace said before going his own way home with thoughts plaguing his mind about the betrayal he would eventually commit.

…

Kidd reached forwards over Law to open the drawer on the nightstand. Law smiled creepily. Law took Kidd's momentary distraction to do what he'd been hoping to. Law arched upwards and reached his arms around Kidd's chest. Law spotted a larger scar he'd been eyeing since Kidd had disrobed. Law ran his tongue over the long stretch of torn flesh. It tasted like salt and sweat. But Law liked the texture of the healed wound under his tongue.

Kidd shivered above him as the he grabbed a small tube of clear fluid from the drawer Law had pointed out before. Kidd returned to his position above Law. Kidd allowed Law to continue what he was doing as he opened the lid on the tube of lube. Law stopped his actions and pulled Kidd's mouth back to his. This time Law bit Kidd's lip in a demand. Kidd complied opening his mouth to allow Law's tongue to enter.

Law tugged at Kidd's hair wanting. He drew the man closer until their teeth were nearly against each other. Law's tongue dove deep into Kidd's mouth and Law kept one of his hands at Kidd's neck and traced Kidd's spine with the other. He felt Kidd's now slick fingers come to rest at his entrance.

A shudder ran over Law as Kidd's fingers entered him. Law keened and gasped pulling away as Kidd's fingers started to move inside him. Law's heart beat sporadically and Kidd added another finger. Law cried out and arched his back. Kidd leaned over Law's prone form and soaked in the sight. Law's skin was flushed and his cheeks were a darkly shaded rose. His eyes were half lidded but were still keenly aware and focused on Kidd's face with curiosity. Kidd extended and curled his fingers and found what he'd been looking for; the sensitive bundle of nerves that sent a wave of heat and pleasure up Law spine. The heat the pooled in his erect groin which was becoming more uncomfortable as Kidd repeated his actions.

"E-eustass-ya!" Law cried out.

Kidd removed his fingers causing Law to twitch. Kidd coated his own member with more of the lubricant. Truthfully, Kidd didn't want to hurt Law, even if the raven was correct about his tendencies during sex. But Law seemed to sense his hesitance, and he didn't want to give the creepy doctor the satisfaction.

Law grimaced as Kidd entered him. Pressure with a twinge of pain shot up his spine. He twisted his head to the side and tried to get used to the feeling. Kidd didn't give him much time to adjust or get settled. Kidd took Law's turned head as an invitation and bit him harshly on the neck; enough to leave a mark in the morning. Law groaned but returned his hands to roving Kidd's torso. He dug his nails into Kidd's back painfully as Kidd started to move inside him. Law glared at Kidd, whom smiled back like a maniac. Kidd started to thrust in a fast rhythm.

"Ah!" Law exclaimed as Kidd slid in and out of him. It hurt a bit, but the true torture was how damn good it felt. "Uh, so good," Law drawled as he shuddered. Kidd chuckled and thrust into Law at full force, sinking all of his length into Law's body. "AH!" Law screamed arching completely back as water collected in his eyes and saliva started to drip from his open jaw.

"Want me to do it again?" Kidd as in pants as their bodies were drenched in sweat and their bodies slid together.

Law squeezed his eyes closed to avoid giving the redhead the satisfaction of hearing him beg. Kidd snickered looking at Law's beautiful flushed expression. Kidd pulled back and almost out of Law before continuing to thrust roughly into Law and picking up the pace. Law's voice broke with his yelling and panting as tears and saliva ran down his face.

"Ruthless bastard," Law cursed spasming and twitching as his breath became hard to catch because of Kidd's continued actions.

Kidd trailed his hand down Law's body reaching down until it settled on the other man's alert and throbbing member. Kidd teased his finger at the bottom of the hot stiff flesh. Inside of Law, Eustass's member collide harshly with the raven' s prostate.

"oh, aaah," Law mewled twisting with desire which only made Kidd's member embed itself deeper inside him. "AH, Eustass, aauugh."

Kidd grabbed Law's hair with his free hand to tilt Law's head back so Kidd could ravenously bite the man's neck. He trailed his mouth down Law's neck, then shoulders, until he arrived at one of the raven's nipple. He bit the erect pink flesh harshly making Law scream in pleasure. Kidd continued to thrust as he ran his hand up Law's hungry member. He rubbed his thumb over the head of the erection and felt as pre-cum that was leaking from it.

"Mmhmmm," Law moaned bucking his hips only causing Kidd's member to hit his prostate again. "Augh, I need to cum."

"Beg me." Kidd ordered biting and sucking at Law's nipple. His hand stroked Law's member in time with his thrusts that were on target with the man's prostate sending terrible waves of heat over the smaller man's body.

Law wanted to resist wanted to tell Kidd to screw off. But the pleasure and the pain; it was too damn good. "Kidd, please," He whined, "let me cum. I need to cum. Please."

"Of course," Kidd smiled.

Kidd bite deeply into Law's shoulder causing the man to grit his teeth. Kidd's hand tightened as it stoked Law. Kidd thrust deeply into Law, deeper then he thought he could; hitting the man's prostate over and over. I made Law squirm and scream beneath him passionately, as his mind nearly broke with the heat and pleasure running through him in uncontrollable waves. Kidd rubbed again down his member before pushing his thumb into the tip of its head. Law spasmed and bucked as the load of his seed freed itself from his member and onto Kidd's hand and stomach. Law's muscled tensed and relaxed all together as shivers assaulted him and his vision blanked into blissful oblivion as the orgasm took control of his body.

Kidd thrust a few more times into the prone surgeon's body until he too lost his seed. It spilled into Law's body making the doctor cry out as his over sensitive body felt Kidd's member twitch, shake, and explode inside him. Kidd collapsed onto the doctor as his body went through the same experience Law's had only seconds ago. Their bodies slick with sweat and seamen stuck to each other as they rode out the waves of bliss. The two panting men came down from their orgasms with their bodies still intertwines.

Law chuckled, "So, you seemed to enjoy yourself."

"So did you." Kidd commented.

"Still worried about being seen with a man?"

"No," Kidd grinned.

"Good," Law smiled, "because I'm taking you next time."

…

_**Sorry this took so long to write I've never written smut so it was really difficult. thank you for all the support. I specifically thank snoopypompom, Guest, and Ecarlates for review. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.**_

**_-LPC_**


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